








Rural Education Series 


RURAL EDUCATION 


RURAL EDUCATION SERIES 


GENERAL Eprtor, MABEL CARNEY 


RURAL SEDUCA TIONS s23. at sion Shaw Ne oa ieree 
RURAL SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. . BaRnNes 


Other books in preparation 





RURAL EDUCATION 


A Critical Study of the Objectives and 


Needs of the Rural Elementary Scho 
oe 


OCT 10 1929 






KRY OF FRINGES 7; 






Y 
My, SS 

Apt aet “OL ogiGAL SENS 
ORVILLE GILBERT BRIM, Pu.D. 


PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF 
AGRICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 


| 
| 
Rew Dork | 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1925 | 


All rights reserved 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


Copyrricut, 1923, 
Bry THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 





Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1923. Reprinted 
January, 1924; January, 1925. 


TO MY WIFE 
HELEN WHITTIER BRIM 





EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 


RuRAL education transcends in importance any other 
phase of American education. Eleven million children, 
or just half the public school enrollment of the United 
States, are in one-teacher and hamlet schools. In term, 
attendance, and curriculum; in teaching, supervision, 
and high school opportunity; in equipment, organiza- 
tion, and expenditure; in every known factor of school 
efficiency and progress, these eleven million children are 
lamentably handicapped and neglected. For them the 
per capita expenditure for educational purposes is $24 
annually, while for city children the same figure is $40. 
For them also the annual school term averages thirty- 
eight days shorter than in cities, which means, in the 
large, that country children have an actual elementary 
school period of only six years, whereas urban children 
under better teachers and better conditions have eight 
years. 

But this is not all. Even the meagre terms supported 
for rural children are but poorly conducted and less well 
attended. Country children lose 28 per cent of the 
seven months’ school term provided for them. Urban 
children lose less, only 21 per cent of the nine months’ 
term provided in cities. So great is this handicap that 
illiteracy is twice as bad in rural areas as in urban dis- 
tricts, and child labor among rural children three times 


as frequent as among urban children. Because of the 
vii 


vill EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION : 


heavy toll of manual labor upon the young people of 
the farms, high school advantages for rural youth have 
been sadly neglected and are estimated to be but one 
sixth as generous as those provided for urban youth. 

Even worse is the teaching situation in rural schools. 
Just half the rural teachers of the United States, or 
150,000, have never completed a four-year high school. 
Ten per cent, or 30,000, have finished only the eighth 
grade. Only two per cent are normal school graduates, 
and 15,000, chiefly in negro rural schools, are not more 
than sixth grade product. 

Contributing still further to the menace of this situa- 
tion is the scarcity and inefficiency of rural school su- 
pervision. Only twelve states provide professionally 
prepared supervisors for rural schools, while the whole 
problem is still further complicated in twenty-nine of 
our forty-eight states through the political election of 
county superintendents on a basis of partisan politics. 

Most serious of all these handicaps, however, is the 
false philosophy of rural elementary education which 
has unconsciously pervaded our thinking on the rural 
school problem. Those engaged in this work must have 
realized for some time that there are two schools of 
thought in their chosen field. The first of these has 
been well characterized as that of the ‘“‘radical rural- 
ites.” Members of this group would, either consciously 
or unconsciously, vocationalize the rural elementary 
school, limit it to the contacts and ideals of the imme- 
diate community, select its teaching content in terms 
of adult needs, reduce its responsibility for perpetuating 
the world’s best social inheritance, and so restrict and 
‘‘blinder”’ country children as to force them of neces- 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 1x 


sity, through ignorance or compulsion, into farming as: 
a life vocation. 

Diametrically opposed to these are the advocates of 
the more liberal school. Members of this group see 
grave dangers in the practices just described and are 
working consistently toward a larger opportunity and 
freedom of life for country children. They believe un- 
questionably “that the rural child has an equal right 
with any other child and that any attempt to keep him 
in the country through limited suggestion or overem- 
phasis upon rural material is autocratic.’ In the prac- 
tical applications of this theory they advocate for coun- 
try children, as for all others, the best possible develop- 
ment of the standard American school system with its 
three specific stages of elementary grades, junior high 
school, and senior high school. These divisions of the 
public school they would characterize for country chil- 
dren as well as for city children by their respective func- 
tions of offering: in the first, a basic background for 
American citizenship; in the second, exploratory op- 
portunities for the discovery of individual aptitude and 
fitness; and in the senior high school, and in it only, a 
preparation for specific and definite vocations. Much 
of the whole difficulty revealed by this study may be 
traced, in fact, to the failure to define these three stages 
of public democratic education, and particularly to a 
confusion of the chief functions of the elementary school 
and the senior high school. 

Nor are these distinctions merely nominal. Separat- 
ing the two groups thus defined is a fundamental differ- 
ence in the philosophy of education which is of profound 
significance to the future welfare of American life and 


x EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 


world democracy, both urban and rural. So serious is 
this situation that the time has come for a careful clari- 
fying of thought, a redefinition of aims and objectives, 
and a frank checking up of some of our practices in the 
light of modern development and democratic striving. 
Toward this end Dr. Brim has made a notable contri- 
bution — one which will challenge the attention and 
approval of all real students of rural education and take 
first rank as a fundamental guide in the thought and 
philosophy of the rural field. If he has been a little 
severe upon those quoted (among whom even the editor 
of this series has not escaped), it has all been done in a 
spirit of sincerity and service and will, it is hoped, be © 
accepted in the same spirit. 

This volume introduces a series, then, which is new 
in fact and philosophy, as well as in name. The chief 
underlying purpose of those responsible for the presen- 
tation of the series is threefold: 

1. To focus attention upon the needs of rural schools 
and assist in the remedy and alleviation of their condi- 
tions. 4 

2. To correct the false philosophy for American edu- 
cation so frequently revealed in the quotations submitted 
through Dr. Brim’s study. 

3. To aid teachers and supervisors in the concrete 
application and practice of more democratic principles 
in better keeping with our national ideals and tradi- 
tions. 

The series will include only books bearing rather 
broadly but specifically upon the problems of rural 
education. The determining factor in the approval of 
each volume will be its fitness for meeting some imme- 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION xi 


diate vital need of the rural education field. Among the 
early contributions of the series will be a text in rural 
school management, a discussion of nature study, a 
book on the rural school curriculum, and a volume on 
rural school supervision. 

In conclusion the editor wishes to invite comments 
and suggestions on this series or any volume in it from 
those engaged in rural education. Only in this way, 
through frank discussion and cordial codperation on 
the many problems of our complicated and varied task, 
can real progress be made, and educational justice as- 
sured to the thousands of children involved. 


MABEL CARNEY. 


Teachers College 
Columbia University 





PREFACE 


A suRvEY of the proposed objectives for rural ele- 
mentary education found in educational writings, and 
a study of tendencies in curriculum revision, in the re- 
organization of rural schools, and in the preparation of 
rural teachers, reveal wide differences of opinion. Most 
of these proposals and tendencies imply that the rural 
elementary school is responsible (1) for preserving a suf- 
ficiently large rural population to supply food for the 
world and sustain a standard rural civilization; (2) for 
giving country children a definite preparation for the 
social and vocational demands of rural life; and (3) for 
solving the many neglected social, religious, recreational, 
and occupational problems of the adult rural group. 
These purposes demand that the rural elementary school 
emphasize rural opportunity, that it give preparation 
for specific local tasks, and that the problems, needs, 
and interests of the adult and of the local community 
should determine the problems and content of the rural 
elementary curriculum. 

A minority oppose this position. They see the task 
of rural elementary education as that of elementary 
education in general, that is, as the problem of socializ- 
ing the child in the largest possible sense, and of pro- 
viding for him the essential conditions of growth! and 
social service. Their conception of the purpose of ele- 
mentary education implies that the elementary school 


1 Growth is used here with the meaning given it by Dewey in his Democracy 
and Education. 
Xili 


XIV PREFACE 


should strive to put. children in touch with the many 
varied interests of men, their forms and conditions of 
living, their problems and needs, and to develop in 
these young lives a spirit of sympathy and codperation 
with the peoples of other groups. This aim would foster 
in the child many varied interests as a basis of growth, 
and prepare him to choose intelligently among these in- 
terests for his particular field of social service. It would 
make available to him the rich resources of the social 
heritage so that he may acquire the means of individual 
growth and social membership; and it would furnish 
for him the social life and atmosphere essential to the 
development of these characteristics. 

It is possible for the rural elementary school to serve 
somewhat each and all of these various proposed ends 
without conflicting with individual and social welfare. 
But when any of the local or limited purposes named 
above is made the primary objective for the elementary 
school, or a determining factor in the educational pro- 
cedure, rural education fails to meet the demands placed 
upon it. Some of these limited purposes may be legiti- 
mate ends for the older children often found in the 
rural elementary school. These are of secondary school 
age, and preparation for vocational efficiency has a 
place in secondary education. It has no place, however, 
in elementary education, and this presence of the adoles- 
cent boy and girl in the rural elementary school necessi- 
tates great caution to avoid sacrificing the general 
education of the elementary child to the more specific, 
local, and vocational interests of the older group. 

It is the purpose of this study to evaluate the various 
proposals enumerated above, to show the danger and 


PREFACE XV 


inadequacy of any program that would vocationalize 
rural elementary education, and to indicate the implica- 
tions of this question for education. Part One presents, 
through quotations, the varying suggested purposes, 
needs, and proposals which have been advanced for 
rural elementary education. These differences of pur- 
pose as herein expressed demand a consideration of the 
fundamental principles of individual development and 
of social stability and progress. Consequently, Part 
Two attempts to state the principles of ‘‘the good life” 
in its individual aspects; that is, to determine the con- 
ditions in which an individual finds his greatest growth 
and satisfaction. It also considers the same question in 
relation to the welfare of society as a whole. Part 
Three makes an analysis of the rural environment in the 
light of the demands of ‘‘the good life” in order to de- 
termine the needs of rural life, especially with reference 
to the child. Chapters IX to XII in Part Four then 
show the bearing of the general principles of individual 
growth and social progress and of these consequent rural 
needs on the curriculum, method, and organization of 
the rural school and upon the teacher’s service in the 
field of community development and occupational life; 
while Chapter XIII makes a similar application to the 
problem of rural-teacher preparation. 

The author takes this opportunity of acknowledging 
his indebtedness and gratitude to his instructors, friends, 
and associates among the faculty and graduate students 
of Teachers College, whose helpful advice and encour- 
agement have contributed very largely to whatever 
merit the book may possess. 

ORVILLE G. Brim. 


Je 


” 
+ 


ue ak 





CONTENTS 


PART ONE: PROPOSED PURPOSES FOR RURAL ELE- 


MENTARY EDUCATION 


CHAPTER I. PURPOSES OF THE SCHOOL AS RELATED TO THE 
CHILDREN 


I. Retaining Children on in Ren 
II. Providing Vocational Preparation 
III. Preparing Country Children for a Satisfying eal Life 


IV. Preparing Children for General Efficiency by Means of 
Rural Resources . 


V. Preparing Children for Geel Efsiney i. Supple 
menting Rural Resources . 


CHAPTER II. Purposes oF THE SCHOOL AS anata TO THE 
SOLUTION OF ADULT AND COMMUNITY PROBLEMS 


I. Retaining Adults in the Country . , 
II. Contributing to Adult Vocational Efficiency 
III. Developing a Broad Rural Citizenship . 
IV. Serving the Local Community . 


V. Serving the Child and starry Rather Than the Teel 
Group 


CHapTer III. Purposes oF THE Palin, AS Caren TO 
NON-RURAL SociAL FoRcES AND ORGANIZATIONS . 
I. Developing a Purely Rural School and Community 
II. Consolidating Schools and Developing Community Cen- 
ters in Rural-minded Villages 
III. Making Rural Institutions and eon a Part of NE 
Social Whole . ‘ ae Ob fee 


XVll 


50 


52 


XVill 


CONTENTS 


PART TWO: STANDARDS FOR JUDGING THESE PUR- 


POSES 


CuHapter IV. Tue Nature or “THe Goop Lirr”’ — INpI- 
VIDUAL ASPECT 


I: 


IT. 


Nature of the Individual | 

Practical definition — The raaidaan as yeaned: Br 
certain writers — The individual as defined in psychol- 
ogy — End predominant — Ends have a personal ap- 
peal — The general end of activity — Each “want” 
an end in itself — Wants conditioned — Immediate 
value not sufficient — Application to education — Sat- 
isfaction dependent upon attainment — Summary. 


Demands made upon the Environment... . 

Conditions suitable to progress — Mind and ati 
nality are social products — Socialized environment as 
a basis for social adjustment — Socialized environment 
as a basis of continued activity to freely chosen ends — 
Provision for freedom to select ends — Self-direction es- 
sential — Growth must continue — Conditions must 
favor the attainment of ends — Summary. 


CuHapTeR V. Tue Nature or “THe Goop Lirg’”’ — Soctan 
ASPECT 


I. 


II. 


(ga 


The Purpose pa Characters of siiety : 

Progressiveness — Unfixed and changing values — 
Coéperation essential — People the source of authority 
— Status of the individual — Summary. 


Social Demands upon the Individual sa ee 
Adjustment — A contribution from each indnidendt 
Characteristics and Conditions of a Desirable Contri- 
bution Digi as Res SON OTP eee ee 
Fitness for task— Chance for self-discovery — 
Varied service — Common responsibility for drudgery 
— Initiative and creative thinking — Critical intelli- 
gence — Continued growth — The development of the 
individual — Summary of conditions — Relation of in- 
dividual and social demands. 


59 
60 


76 


87 
87 


95 


. 101 


CONTENTS. 


XIX 


PART THREE: THE EDUCATIONAL POSSIBILITIES AND 


NEEDS OF THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT 


CHAPTER VI. AN ANALYSTS OF RURAL LIFE AS RELATED TO 
GENERAL SoOcIAL PRINCIPLES . 
I. Rural and Non-rural Relations 


II. 


III. 


Urban attitude toward rural life — Gorerient : ser- 
vice to farmers — To farm women — To rural children 
— Attitude of rural leaders on the purpose of country 
life — Rural attitude toward the city. 

Rural Standards and Practices 

Rural social relations — The status of Wake women 
— The status of rural children — Rural health condi- 
tions — Education and church standards — Rural men- 
tal defectiveness — Rural morality — Rural industri- 
ousness — Rural economy — Summary of rural status 
— Solution proposed. 

Rural Contribution and Participation in Progress 

Contribution in food — In men of note — In social 
virtues — In man power — Possible causes — Solutions 
proposed — Summary. 


CHAPTER VII. Rurat OccupaTIONsS AS RELATED TO ADULT 
GROWTH AND SOCIAL PROGRESS . 


I. Possibilities in Agriculture 


Il. 


Opportunity for self-direction — nearranity for He 


development of many interests — Opportunity for self-ex- 
pression — Provision for continued growth — Provision 
for real social membership — Fruitfulness for leisure. 
Lacks in Agriculture 

Farmer not master of the atntiek — aaee woman 
restricted also— Farmer’s interest primarily in in- 


come — Non-vocational interests neglected — Com- ‘ 


munity and social relations undeveloped — Summary. 


CuapTerR VIII. Rurawu Lire as RELATED TO THE ESSENTIAL 
CONDITIONS OF CHILD GROWTH . 


I. Rural Freedom Evaluated ... . 


115 
115 


127 


146 


157 
157 


166 


175 
175 


XX CONTENTS 


The nature of the individual — The nature of rural 
freedom — Essential characteristics of desirable free- 
dom. 

II. Additional Demands upon the Rural Environment . . 180 

Many social contacts — Varied social contacts — Su- 
perior standards and practices — Many interests and 
opportunity for self-discovery — Freedom to vary — 
Access to the social heritage — Leadership and guidance. 


PART FOUR: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR RURAL 
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 


CuapterR [X. THE GENERAL PURPOSE AND PROBLEM OF 
RURAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION . . owe BEL 

Social adjustment and progress — The proper purpose 

‘of rural elementary education — The influence of en- 

vironment upon rural elementary education — Educa- 

tion to serve the real needs of rural children — Problems 

in rural elementary education — Criticism of the pur- 

poses proposed for rural elementary education — Con- 
clusion. 


CHapTeR X. THe NaATuRE oF DESIRABLE ScHoou Activity 215 

Educational method based on life activity — The es- 
sential conditions of learning — Arguments for this 
type of activity — The problem for educators — Ad- 
vantages of the rural school for project teaching — 
Practical implications of the foregoing theses for the 
making of curricula— Demands upon rural teachers and 
supervisors — Requirements in textbooks and equip- 


ment. 
CHAPTER XI. APPLICATION OF THESE Basic PRINCIPLES OF 
SELECTION AND METHOD TO VARIOUS SCHOOL SUBJECTS. . 229 


Reading — Arithmetic — Hygiene and sanitation — 

General primary lessons — History, civics and geogra- 

phy — Agriculture and homemaking — Music and art. 

CHAPTER .XII. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND 
ComMMUNITY RELATIONS OF THE RuRAL SCHOOL ... . 257 
I. Rural School Organization sso, fae > =.) sue (oe eerane 


CONTENTS Xxl 


Necessity of a larger unit — Fallacy of arguments for 
open-country consolidation — Bearing upon the church 
situation — Mistaken tendencies from high sources. 

II. The Rural Elementary School as Related to the Com- 
TUT Vem ten a irra Rony mera erat eu t,o by st 2G] 

Evaluation of suggested service to the community — 
Relation of the school and community — Extent of the 

community — Type of local community. 


III. The Rural Elementary School as Related to Vocational 


TOOLING rare Beer ere i Can ee cat = QBS 
CHAPTER XIII. PREPARATION OF THE RURAL ELEMENTARY 
TEACHER... 271 


Problems of the rural elementary teacher — Type of 
teacher and qualifications needed — Objectives ad- 
vanced for the preparation of rural teachers — Criti- 
cism of these objectives — Fundamental objectives — 
Curricula studies — Organization for the preparation 
of rural teachers. 


ESLELOGRA PH Vere ce te a eg rhea gt. Ped Vet!) cette 295 
MD Xe MEN Re ee hearers) cee ig seh e “hs)) siois die OOO 


PP 


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cy eV eas 
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PARTI 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 
FOR 
RURAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 





Ley Weedon ee) GAT LOIN 


CHAPTER I 


PURPOSES OF THE SCHOOL AS RELATED TO 
THE CHILDREN 


EVEN a casual reading of rural life literature shows a 
wide discrepancy of opinion concerning the function, 
nature, and content of rural elementary education. 
What do modern writers consider to be the purpose of 
the school as related to the children, to adults, and to 
community life? What, in their opinion, should be its 
relation to other non-rural organizations? What large 
principles of education are consciously or unconsciously 
assumed? What social organization do their proposals 
contemplate? What solutions of the numerous rural 
problems do they seek? 

An attempt will be made here to answer these ques- 
tions by means of quotations from various writers so 
classified as to emphasize the differences they hold in 
objectives and purposes. Only such additional state- 
ments will be made as are necessary to show the relation 
of the quotations to the point under discussion or to 
interpret them in the light of the unquoted.context. No 
effort will be made to characterize any one writer as 
maintaining any particular point of view exclusively. 
The question has been discussed so freely, and at times 


so superficially, that statements implying quite conflict- 
3 


4 RURAL EDUCATION 


ing social philosophies and educational purposes are often 
found in the same book. It would therefore be difficult 
and useless for present needs to attempt any classifica- 
tion of writers. The purpose is rather to classify the 
various theories or points of view expressed, without 
considering in any specific case whether a complete or 
final expression of the author’s position is represented. 

The greatest care has been exercised in confining the 
choice of quotations to those made with direct reference 
to the elementary rural school. The words school and 
rural education appear in certain quotations. If these 
were interpreted to mean schools of secondary rank or 
the whole educative process of a democratic govern- 
ment in a rural society, it would quite invalidate the 
criticisms and conclusions to be presented. But the 
setting, which cannot be reproduced here without great 
difficulty, shows these discussions to refer primarily to 
the rural elementary school. 

The quotations are grouped about three aspects of 
the topic: 

A. The school as related to the children. 

B. The school as related to the solution of adult and 

community problems. 
C. Theschool as related to non-rural social forces and 
organizations. 


I. RETAINING CHILDREN ON THE FARM 


Even those who have written of the school only in 
relation to the child show divergent points of view. The 
first of these to be presented is that which considers the 
school a primary means of retaining rural youth upon the 
land, of overcoming the fatal attractiveness of the city, 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 5 


and of bolstering up a rural population which is gradually 
diminishing in quantity and probably deteriorating in 
quality. This is to be done by the creation of a situation 
that will lead the child to choose the country as his place 
of living and agriculture as his life work. 

Retention as the School’s Responsibility. — This view 
of the responsibility of the school finds expression among 
the early discussions of the rural life problem. The 
Roosevelt Commission on Country Life sent out the 
following inquiry among others: ‘‘Are the schools in 
your neighborhood training boys and girls satisfactorily 
for life on the farm?”* The response to this suggestive 
question is summarized by the Commission in the 
following statement: 


Criticism of the schools as they now exist was almost universal by 
the people, because their influence is rather to train youth away from 
the soil than to train them how to make the soil more productive and 
life on it more satisfactory.! 


The responsibility of the school for this type of service 
is accepted by two recent writers who, in the MO aaa 
quotations, state it more boldly: 


We want to keep the boys and girls in the country and make them 
better farmers and farmers’ wives than are their parents.” 

The rural school must educate the children in such a way that they 
will want to remain in the country and will remain in the country 
because of the opportunity, independence, and pleasure to be derived 
from the country. 


* In this and in the following quotations the italics are the author’s. 

1 Page, Walter H. — quoted by Foght in The American Rural School, p. 12. 

2A quotation from a teacher’s letter, given by Eggleston and Bruére in 
The Work of the Rural School, p. 14. The work of the teacher from whose 
letter this was quoted was discussed at length by the authors and endorsed 
as something superior and worthy of imitation. 

3 Driver, Lee L. — N. EH. A. Proceedings, 1919, p. 65. 


6 RURAL EDUCATION 


Retention as an Argument for Reorganization. — 
This task of retaining children in the country has often — 
furnished an argument for the reorganization of the rural 
school. aia 

If the boys and girls born on the farm are to be retained in this form - 


of industry, the rural school must be broadened to give them an . 
education equal to that afforded by the town or city for its youth.! 


It was the desire to render service of this type which 
caused Mrs. Marie Turner Harvey to shift from the 
model school on the campus at Kirksville, Missouri, to 
the district school in the Porter Community itself. In 
New Schools for Old, by Evelyn Dewey, the situation is 
thus presented: 

One of these families living on the state road reluctantly took 
advantage of the model school wagon (which took the country 
children to Kirksville) in order to give their children the best education 
available; and yet saw that by doing so they were surely breaking up . 
their home and disqualifying their boys for farm life. The mother 
said that she could see them day by day absorbing town interests, 


town habits, and town ambitions, until she knew that “every day 
they went they were getting farther away from the farm.” 2 


Meanwhile Mrs. Harvey, in spite of her success in 
Kirksville, where she was teaching the model school 
referred to in the above quotation, was not altogether 
satisfied with her experiment. For, as she came to know 
her pupils and their parents, she began to realize the 
injury that the school was doing to one rural district in 
its attempt to furnish a model for all. ‘‘That is, she, 
too, saw her older pupils gradually drifting in interest and 
sentiment away from their homes and farm life.”’ 3 

1 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 62. 


2 Dewey, Evelyn — New Schools for Old, p. 59. 
8 Ibid. — p. 60. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES Gs 


Those who hope to ruralize the country child perma- 
nently see great promise toward this end in the consoli- 
dation of rural schools. ‘‘The first use to which the 
centralized rural school is adapted is to halt the exodus 
from the country,’ writes one,! while another says, after 
describing the John Swaney school: 


Here they early learn to know that they are indigenous to the soil; 
that here they must live and die. Give us many such schools, and the 
farm youth is in no danger of leaving the farm! 2 


Influence of the Idea of Retention upon Curriculum 
Content. — The desire to retain rural youth upon the 
soil has led not only to a reorganization of rural schools 
in order to accomplish the accepted purpose, but for 
some, it has also furnished the basic principle upon which 
. the content of the rural curriculum is to be changed. 

A county superintendent says: 


The slogans of our country have been for years “Stay on the farm,” 
and ‘‘The country school of to-day for the country life of to-morrow.” 
The result in the schools has been farm arithmetic, farm geography, 
elementary text books in agriculture, and a demand for the enrichment 
- of the course of study for country children, that country children be 
taught in terms of their own lives.’ 


This same purpose has motivated efforts in connection 
with the more recent service of the rural school. Mac- 
Dougal says: “An unsolved problem is as to how the 
recreations of country life may be so associated with 
its tasks that boys and girls shall regard farm life as a 
desirable vocation.” * It applies likewise to nature 

1 Wilson, Warren H. — The Evolution of the Country Community, p. 163. 

2 Foght, H. W. — The American Rural School, p. 327. 

3 Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, No. 25. Quotation from E. M. Rapp 


of Berks County, Pa. 
4 MacDougal, John — Rural Life in Canada, p. 137. 


8 RURAL EDUCATION 


study, agriculture, manual training, and domestic science. 
In discussing the purpose of nature study L. B. Evans, | 
County Superintendent of Richmond County, Georgia, 
makes the following statement: 


We must recognize that we cannot redeem the farming interests 
of the country until we create a deep and abiding love in the old farm, 
and a pride in it that makes the boy resolve to live there as his fathers 
have done before him, and to bring out of the soil a more abundant and 
profitable harvest. 1 


It is evident from the above quotations that, for many 
of our educational leaders, using the school as a means 
of making rural children satisfied with the opportunities 
and responsibilities of life in the open country is thor- 
oughly legitimate. 

In some cases this purpose seems to be sought by an 
intensive narrowing of the curriculum. In others it is 
to be secured by reorganizing the school, by increasing 
its efficiency, or by enriching the curriculum with rural 
content so that there may be sufficient satisfaction to 
induce children to remain. But in all these cases the 
objective is primarily to retain the children, and espe- 
cially the best children, for a future on the farm. 


II. PROVIDING VOCATIONAL PREPARATION 


The second purpose which the rural school should 
serve, according to some, is the preparation of country 
children for the vocation of agriculture. This aim is 
closely related to the first purpose and may have been 
looked upon as a means for its realization. It, too, is 
implied in the point of view from which the Country 


1 Evans,-L. B. — ‘‘The Rural School,” p. 52. Pamphlet, 1906, published 
by the County Board of Education, Augusta, Ga. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 4 


Life Commission approached the problem. They asked 
in the questionnaire: ‘‘Are the schools in your neighbor- 
hood training boys and girls satisfactorily for life on the 
farm?’ 1 The answer then was in the negative and it 
has been followed by many efforts to reform the rural 
school in that direction. Even Bailey sometimes 
appears to be of the opinion that such preparation should 
begin early if results are to be attained. He says: 
Sympathy with any kind of effort or occupation, and good prepara- 
tion for engaging in it, are matters of slow and long continued growth. 


This growth should begin in childhood and should be aided by the 
home and the school.? 


Reasons for the Vocational Aim. — This purpose is 
justified as a specific task of the rural elementary school 
because of the large proportion of country children who 
‘will be likely to accept farming as their life work. It is 
also justified because of the large percentage of children 
who must get their vocational training in the elementary 
school if they are to get it at all. Gillette, speaking from 
the sociological point of view, says: 


Communities are differentiated by means of their interest. They 
may be mining, stock-raising, agricultural, industrial, commercial. . . . 
The community business or interest determines the kind of vocational 
training an individual should have. 

Ninety or ninety-five per cent of the population will either remain 
in the community they are born and reared in, or will remove to a 
similar community, one with similar interests. The dominant 
pursuits of a region may determine what the pupils should be trained 
for without doing an injustice to any.3 

Again, probably less than 40 per cent of the children of the United 
States advance in education beyond the eighth grade, and about 50 
per cent are eliminated from the schools by the beginning of the 


1 Report of the Commission on Country Life, p. 51. 
2 Bailey, L. H. — The Training of Farmers, p. 137. 
s Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 328. 


10 RURAL EDUCATION 


seventh grade. This means that education must be useful and 
practical before all else; that what it to be done for individuals to equip 
them to carry on their life business competently must be done for them 
an the elementary schools. 


It is very evident from the context that Gillette is 
thinking of education as emphasizing social knowledge, 
sympathy, and intelligent codperation. It is, neverthe- 
less, to be of a vocational nature in a field already deter- 
mined by the environment and to take place in the ele- 
mentary school. A. P. Bourland, Secretary of the 
Conference for Education in the South, makes the 
following statement, in which preparation for a possible 
future vocation, rather than education for growth and 
general social membership, is made the paramount task 
of the rural elementary school. | 

A body of scientific knowledge is, therefore, the farmer’s starting 
point. To this must be added a certain skill. When we determine 
these two things, what the farmer must know and the skill he must have, 
we will get the elements to be worked into the school. . . . It is estimated 
that 95 per cent of the farmers’ children follow farming in some form. 


We take wt for granted that the school will work for this 95 per cent 
rather than for the 5 per cent that go into other callings.? 


It is the opinion of R. H. Wilson, State Superintendent 
of Education for Oklahoma, that ‘“The pupils attending 
these (one-room) schools are the ones that should receive 
agricultural instruction, since from their ranks the farms 
are recruited.”’ 8 

The Commission of the N. E. A. on Industrial Educa- 
tion for the Country Community takes the same position 
and reports the following: 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 330. 

2 Rural Life Bulletin, No. 1, Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S. C., September, 
TOVA ks. 

3 N. EH. A. Proceedings, 1917, p. 132. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 11 


This committee does not hesitate to say that, in its judgment, the 
country schools, which train nearly one half of the school population 
of this country so far as school training goes, should definitely 
recognize the fact that the major portion of those being trained will 
continue to live on the farm; and that there should be specific, definite, 
technical training fitting them for the activities of farm life. 


Elementary School Held Responsible for Vocational 
Efficiency. — The responsibility of the school for voca- 
tional efficiency is given in the following quotations, all 
of which emphasize training for efficient farming as the 
function of the rural elementary school. 


From the point of view of the nation the work of the public school 
is to get a maximum product in efficient citizenship out of the com- 
munity to which it is assigned, and the distinguishing mark of efficient 
citizenship in the rural community vs skill in the production of food? 


The next two quotations are given at length, because 
it is necessary to get the mass of data in the mind of the 
speaker to appreciate the vision he has of rural school 
work and the reasons for his interpretation of its func- 
tion. In speaking of research in Agriculture, W. M. 
Hays, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, says of the 
common school: 


When ten times as much technical research has been completed 
as now, and this new knowledge has been put in teachable form, the 
demand that it can be carried to ten million youths who are preparing 
for country life in the United States will be irresistible. And the 
knowledge will so increase the general and economic efficiency of the 
country life that the half of the rural children, approximately five 
million, now induced to attend school, will be increased to six or 
seven millions. . . . The schools must bend their energies more 
clearly to training for all the specific vocations . . . it is manifest 


1‘*Report of the Commission on Industrial Education for the Country 
Community,” N. EH. A. Proceedings, 1905. 
2 Eggleston and Bruére — The Work of the Rural School, p. 10. 


12 RURAL EDUCATION 


that agricultural knowledge cannot reach the great body of rural 
pupils except through their local schools.1 


Kern sees the work of the rural school measured 
through the facts quoted from the following statement 
by Secretary James Wilson in his Report of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for 1904: 


An occupation that has produced such an unthinkable value as one 
aggregating nearly $5,000,000,000 within a year may be better 
measured by some comparisons. All the gold mines of the entire 
world have not produced since Columbus discovered America a 
greater value of gold than the farmers of this country have produced 
in wealth in two years. This year’s (1904) produce is over six times 
the amount of the capital stock of all national banks; it comes within 
three fourths of a billion dollars of equaling the value of the manu- 
facturers of 1900, less the cost of materials used; it is twice the sum 
of our exports and imports for a year; it is two and a half times 
the gross earnings from the operation of the railways; it is three and a 
half times the value of all minerals produced in this country, including 
coal, iron-ore, gold, silver, and quarried stone. 


Kern then concludes, ‘The efficiency of the country 
school must be increased vn order to give the proper training 
to fit boys and girls to handle this immense business.” 2 

Influence of the Vocational Purpose upon Educational 
Organization. — The conception of the elementary rural 
school as a rural vocational institution finds expression 
in various ways. Cubberley, in presenting his ideal 
state organization, has one department entitled, Hle- 
mentary-education dinsion, one entitled, Secondary- 
education division, and another entitled, Rural and 
Agricultural-education divisions Evidently he saw a 


1 Hays, W. M. — ‘‘Education for Country Life,” Circular 84, p.9. Office 
of Experiment Stations, Washington, D. C. 

2 Kern, O. J. — Among Country Schools, p. 215. 

$Cubberley, E. P.+ State and County Educational Reorganization, 
pp. 31-2. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 13 


closer relation between the divisions of rural and agri- 
cultural education than between rural elementary 
education and elementary education elsewhere. The 
Bureau of Education at Washington has issued a bulle- 
tin! to serve as a basis for legislative programs in the 
various states, in which the vocational interpretation 
of rural elementary education is shown through the 
statement that the emergency in education may be met 
by a “‘reorganization of rural education to provide rural 
communities with adequate elementary and secondary 
schools of agricultural type.’”’ Even in the catalog 
of Teachers College, Columbia University, the depart- 
ment of rural education was formerly classified with that 
of vocational education as if this were the field to which 
rural education is most closely allied. 

Origin of Demand for the Vocational Element. — 
This definite vocational training on the part of rural 
schools for country children is considered necessary 
because city schools are thought to be giving such train- 
ing to their children for the city vocations. The country 
school, modeled after the city school, was likewise train- 
ing for the city vocations rather than for the country 
tasks. Rural leaders have not considered this use of the 
urban elementary school wrong for the city. It has been 
thought bad merely for the country. The rural task, 
then, is to make rural schools serve the rural vocation 
instead. In discussing the reorganization of the course 
of study to meet the needs of modern rural life, Katherine 
M. Cook makes the following statement: 

What is a rural course of study? What should it include?.. . Its 
content must be so prepared as to fit country boys and girls for living in 


1 Manual of Educational Legislation, Bulletin, 1919, No. 4, p. 7. 


14. RURAL EDUCATION 


the country, at least as successfully as city schools prepare city children 
for living in the city. 

The vocational nature, or purpose of such training, 
is expressed by Wilson, who says of the rural school: 

Its teaching is suited to prepare men for trade, but not for agri- 
culture. Instead of making farmers of sons of farmers . . . the country 
school prepares them for buying and selling, for calculation and store 
keeping. . . . The most important improvement, however, in the 


country schools is almost impossible in the one-room school. It is 
the teaching of the Gospel of the Land.? 


While in the proposals made as a result of the recent 
survey of the schools of Uelaware, the following principle 
for the development of rural schools is given: 

Schools for rural children should be developed in terms of the 
rural life which they are leading and which they may normally be 
expected to continue to lead. Their education should look in the 


direction of making them more efficient farmers and housekeepers rather 
than to converting them into clerks, stenographers and trade workers.8 


Interpretation of ‘‘Rural Needs.’? — One point needs 
to be noticed in order to interpret properly the writings 
concerning the changes in rural education in connection 
with this revolt against the domination of the city course 
of study. Much is said about adjusting the rural cur- 
riculum to rural ‘‘needs.’’ This statement may have two 
meanings. It may refer to the supplying of ‘“‘needs”’ 
existing in the rural situation, whose fulfillment is essen- 
tial to the freest development of the individual in any 
direction he may choose — that is, to the provision of 
the essential elements of growth lacking in the rural 
environment. It is evident that such needs vary for 


1N. E. A. Proceedings, 1919, p. 284. 

2 Wilson, W. H. — The Evolution of the Country Community, p. 159. 

3 **Possible Consolidations of Rural Schools in Delaware,” Vol. 1, No. 4, 
p. 6. Bulletin, Service Citizens’ League, Wilmington, Del. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 15 


different individuals and for different locations. It 
may refer, on the other hand, to supplying what the 
individual ‘‘needs” to be prepared for this particular 
task or vocation. In other words, it may mean supply- 
ing elements essential to a general social membership, 
or it may mean the provision of elements which fit him 
for some particular type of life. It is the last meaning 
which seems to lie in the minds of those who speak of 
‘“‘adjusting the school to the needs of rural life.”” This 
view of the ‘‘needs”’ of the country child is clearly brought 
out in the following: 

Is the training given what the community most needs for its own 
interests and welfare? Does the school serve to fit the pupils into the 
concrete activities and obligations of later life? Specifically, does 
the rural school make better farmers, citizens and keepers of homes? 
Does it not only supply the broad and general foundations of knowl- 
edge which all must have, but does it help the boy in the problems of 
agriculture, stock raising, and the mechanical work of the farm? Does 
it train the girl to understand and care for the farm home, making it 
comfortable, hygienic and artistic? Does it serve to attract its pupils to 
farm life, instead of driving them from 1? 3 

Mutchler and Craig were distinctly guided by this 
conception of rural needs when making their Course of 
Study for Rural Teachers concerning whose service they 
say: 

The problem to be solved, and the interests to be encouraged, 
developed, and ministered unto are different from those in any other 
phase of elementary education. Rural interests and rural problems 
are not like the city’s interests and its problems; and educators 
everywhere, especially in the South, are coming more and more 
to believe that the course of study adapted to securing the most 


efficient rural life is radically different from any other course of 
study.? 


1 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 24. 
U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1912, No, 1, pp. 7-8. 


16 RURAL EDUCATION 


It seems evident that ‘‘needs’ as here interpreted 
refer to the vocational needs of an agricultural people 
rather than to their ‘‘needs’ for meeting the larger 
demands of membership in a progressive democracy. 

Influence of Vocational Purpose upon the Curriculum 
and the Selection of Teachers. By many the new 
subjects which were added to the curriculum were seen 
as a means of developing this vocational efficiency. 
Betts and Hall are specially given to treating these 
subjects from this point of view. They say: 

Supplementing the work in agriculture in the efficient rural school, 
there must be manual training for the boys and domestic science for 
the girls arranged with especial reference to the problems of the farm 
and the farm home. ‘The farmer is constantly called on to exercise 
his skill as a mechanic in connection with the building and equipment 
of machinery of the farm. . . . Manual training in the rural school 1s 
of great economic value to every farm boy. 

Similarly in the case of domestic science as a preparation for the 


care of the farm home. . . . In fitting girls to be expert homemakers, 
the rural school finds one of its greatest opportunities. 


Foght sees large returns from such a vocational cur- 
riculum when he says: 


Give to rural education an increasing agricultural trend, and we shall 
soon be in a fair way to solve the rural-school problem. .. . Let, then, the 
rural school of to-day face its pupils toward the township and county 
high schools with their agricultural instruction, the eventual aim being 
to prepare them for entrance to the agricultural college or immediately 
for the practical tasks of the farm’ 


In some cases these newer subjects are to be the 
fundamentals of the rural school curriculum. Betts 
and Hall say that the core of the curriculum shall be — 

1 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 30. 


2 Ibid. — p. 31. 
3’ Foght, H. W. — The American Rural School, p. 206. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 17 


Nature study as related to the open country, agriculture adapted to 
the local needs and conditions, manual training of the type most 
related to the needs of the farm, home economics suited to the con- 
ditions of the farm home, — these are the basis of the rural-school 
curriculum. 


That this vocational conception has influenced the 
selection of teachers is indicated by McKeever, who 
Says: 


The country school is, in its best sense, an industrial school; and 
only those teachers can do best work therein who have had the per- 
sonal experience in industrial training and the changed point of view 
which only the agricultural college can give.? 


Club Work as a Means of Vocational Efficiency. — 
This vocational purpose seems to have been in the minds 
of many in fostering club work. Kern, speaking of the 
values of such work, says: 


The boy of the Winnebago County Farmer Boys’ Experiment Club 
who won the first prize in the corn contest of 1903 had a plot of corn 
which yielded at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five bushels per 
acre, while several others had plots that approached closely the 
hundred bushel mark. These boys will be the farmers of the future and 
will raise greater crops than their fathers. The financial gains to the 
country at large will be measured by millions of dollars.* 


The same point of view appears in the following from 
Wilkinson in speaking on the better training of country 
youth. 


The foremost function of the club movement is to give country 
boys and girls a better type of training than they are receiving, in 
many cases, under present conditions. It seems only fair that young 
people who may be reasonably expected to spend their lives on the 
farm should be given the kind of education that will enable them to get 


1 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 63. 
2 McKeever, W. A. — Farm Boys and Girls, p. 125. 
3 Kern, O. J. — Among Country Schools, p. 217. 


18 RURAL EDUCATION 


the largest possible returns from their farms, make their home life most 
satisfying, and discharge the duties of citizenship in the most efficient 
manner.! 

It is clear, therefore, that one result of this vocational training 
(secured from the club work) is to make farm pursuits more profit- 
able and home life more pleasurable — to the best type of young men 
and women.? 


A more specific relation of club work to vocational 
service is shown by Alleman, who says: 


We are changing the emphasis in our rural schools by entering into 
work related to agriculture, such as corn clubs, canning clubs, poultry 
clubs, hog clubs, and domestic science clubs. 


It is also one of the fundamental values in the emphasis 
upon home project work. 


One of the most promising fields for the development of rural 
vocational training 1s what is coming to be known as home project study 4 

If all the farm boys now in rural schools could be interested in club 
and home project work, thus getting the information and developing 
the standards of farming required of members of the present clubs, 
the resultant increase in agricultural wealth in the nation would be 
almost beyond computation. The productivity of the soil would be 
far more than doubled and its natural strength would be much 
better conserved than under present conditions. And corresponding 
results are possible in the breeding and raising of stock, in the care and 
use of improved farm machinery, in the planning and erection of farm 
buildings, including farm houses, and in all that goes to making 
farming a profitable and worthy career.® 


III. PREPARING COUNTRY CHILDREN FOR A SATISFYING 
RURAL LIFE 


The third point of view is one which sees the rural 
school purpose in less limited terms. The general 


1 Wilkinson, W. A. — Rural School Management, p. 377. 

2 Ibid. — p. 378. 

8 U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, No. 25, p. 42. 
4 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 100. 

5 Ibid. — p. 106. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 19 


tendency of the former group was to think of rural life 
solely or largely in terms of economic and productive 
efficiency. To others this is narrow. The fundamental 
needs of rural people are in the realm of spirit. Art, 
music, literature, and the qualities of good citizenship 
demanded of a farmer are included in the objectives of 
a rural school education. There are many who speak 
of such aims in general terms emphasizing neither the 
economic nor giving in detail the other interests to be 
encouraged. They are, however, not thinking primarily 
of the former type of efficiency. A. P. Bourland, Secre- 
tary of the Conference of Education for the South, in 
his introduction to the report upon an Experimental 
Rural School at Winthrop College, says: 

At the outset the effort was to see clearly: first, what the farm 
wife must do all her life; second, what the farmer must do all his life. 
Then, regardless of tradition, the resolve was to make a school that 
would train farm children for their future work in the home, on the 
farm, and in the social life around them. 

In describing the community attitude in the Porter 
Community where Mrs. Harvey conducted her experi- 
mental school, Evelyn Dewey says: 

These people wanted a good school for their children, but even 
more than that, they wanted a good country school. They had pride 
and ambition in their home and their occupation as well as in their 
children. They believed that a good school in the country would 
tend to keep their children at home, would give them the education 
that is necessary to make a success of farming, and enable them to find 


for themselves the interests and connections which are necessary for a 
contented and well-balanced life.? 


The same general purpose is contained in the quota-~ 


tions at the top of the following page: 


1U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 42. 
2 Dewey, Evelyn — New Schools for Old, p. 67. 


20 RURAL EDUCATION 


The country school had decided to make use of its advantages, to 
live its own life, and thus to prepare its boys and girls for an efficient 
and happy life in the open country.! 

The purpose of the rural school is avowedly to prepare rural folk 
for useful, contented lives on the land? 


A Broader Rural Culture Demanded.— A more 
definite reaction to the conception of rural needs chiefly 
in terms of vocational efficiency is shown by others. 


Our agricultural population is suffering as much from the want of 
a vision-giving breadth of culture as from the want of technical 
preparation for their life work. . . . A broad measure of academic 
culture should, therefore, be considered a first essential to all rural 
teaching success. 


In speaking of the need of farm children for an educa- 
tion, Betts and Hall say: 


They require a preparation that will fit them to understand and 
carry out all the problems of successful present-day farming. They 
should also have their interests broadened and their minds developed 
through a knowledge of the world’s great literature, its science, its 
history, its art and its music 


President Sledd of the University of Florida, in dis- 
cussing the topic of Rural versus Urban Conditions in 
the Determination of Educational Policy, says: 


To make a good farmer, however difficult itself, is comparatively 
a simple matter; but to make a good farmer who shall at the same time 
be an intelligent, patriotic, and high thinking citizen, and yet content 
with the life of the farm, is the final task and supreme test of rural 
education.§ 


1Tate, W. K.— New Country Schools; A Survey of Development. Pub- 
lished by the Youth’s Companion, Boston. 

2 Foght, H. W. — The Rural Teacher and His Work, p. 151. 

2 Ibid. — p. 9. 

4 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 6. 

’Sledd, Andrew — Bulletin 212, 1909, Office of Experiment Stations, 
Washington, D. C, 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 21 


The following extracts emphasize the same need 
among rural folk: 

It is now generally conceded that our rural schools be based upon 
principles broad enough to produce an agricultural citizenship of the 
highest ideals and filled with a desire to live their lives in the open 
country, in the intensive cultivation of the soil.! 

A very important problem of popular education to-day is the 
better adaptation of the work of rural schools to the needs of rural 
life. The schools must make the people more intelligent in regard to 
the life they are to live. Both for culture and practical utility the 
course of study in these schools should conform more closely to the 
environment of the child and the future work of the man? 


Thus while these men demand for the country an all- 
round development, and an expression for the child’s 
varied interests, there is a constant tendency to think 
of him as a future citizen-farmer rather than as an 
individual and a member of society at large. 


IV. PREPARING CHILDREN FOR GENERAL EFFICIENCY 
BY MEANS OF RURAL RESOURCES 


The fourth purpose of the rural school in relation to 
the children is still more general. It aims primarily 
at a preparation equally serviceable for any type of life or 
activity that the child may choose after leaving the 
elementary school. It definitely disavows any purpose 
of making farmers or preparing children for country 
demands. ‘This is clearly stated by Miss Carney in the 
following: 

A great demand is being made to-day by farmers and others con- 


nected with country life for instruction in agriculture. Such train- 
ing, it is contended, will hold boys on the farm and make farmers of 


1U. 8S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, No. 49, Preface. 
2U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1912, No. 1 — Claxton’s ‘‘ Letter of 
Transmittal,” 


22 RURAL EDUCATION 


them. Personally, I am as much interested in the making of farmers 
and in holding the right kind of farmers upon the land as anyone. 
But to this argument I take exception. Let us have farmers who 
are farmers from choice not from force. As a teacher in country 
schools, I do not teach agriculture either to make or unmake farmers. 
I teach it for two simple reasons: first, because it is the basic experi- 
ence of my young people, the experience through whose terminology 
they interpret everything else; and second, because it is a great racial 
heritage of science and information which every child should know, 
just as he should know history. . . . In short, let us make agriculture 
and farm life experience the starting point of elementary rural education, 
not its ultimate goal. 

This redirection of the country school is a matter of fundamental 
educational philosophy, not of making farmers or of holding country 
children upon the land, as is often argued. The latter is desirable to a 
certain degree, and it is also true that while “it is not desirable to 
try to make farmers, it seems advisable to stop unmaking them.” 
But neither the making nor the unmaking of farmers touches the quick of 
the country school problem educationally.2 


The purpose presented here is that of using the rich 
material in the environment as subject matter worth 
knowing for every one and as the most profitable means 
of introducing the rural child into a larger experience. 
Culter and Stone express this latter reason when they 
say: 

If authors of text books and courses of study would recognize more 
fully the law of apperception and that there is a certain amount of 
local significance that should enter into every course of study, much 
could be done for our rural schools. This would, doubtless, require a 


different text book and a different course of study for the rural schools 
from that used in city schools.3 


But McKeever finds in these rural resources sufficient 
material for a child’s whole education: 


1 Carney, Mabel — Country Life and the Country School, pp. 179-80. 

2 Ibid. — p. 239. 

3’ Culter and Stone — The Rural School; Its Methods and Management, 
p. 182. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 23 


The country districts are slowly waking up to an appreciation of 
the fact that within their bounds lie, not only all the elements 
fundamental to the material wealth of the world, but that they also 
contain in a more or less dormant form all the essential factors of 
intellectual and spiritual wealth.! 


Butterfield analyzes the situation and the needs as 
follows: 


The reason for introducing agriculture and country life subjects 
into the average country school is not primarily to educate for 
agriculture, but to educate by means of agriculture. There comes a 
time, it is true, when a boy must make his choice, and if he is to be 
a farmer, he ought to be definitely and thoroughly educated for 
agriculture. But it would be absolutely mischievous to plan the rural 
school system on such a basis as to direct all the boys and girls back to the 
farm and to make it difficult or impossible for them to compete with the 
city boy or girl in other professions and occupations. 


Bailey, too, takes the same stand in discussing the 
reasons for introducing agriculture and country life 
subjects. He states his position thus: 


Personally, I have very little care whether a class in agriculture is 
introduced in any school or not; . . . the real nub of the matter lies 
much deeper than this. The whole process of the school must 
change. We must begin with the child’s world and not with the teacher’s 
world, and we must use the common objects, phenomena and activi- 
ties as means of education. When these objects, phenomena, and 
activities are agricultural (as they are in a rural community), then 
agriculture becomes a means of education, but it 1s not agriculture in the 
sense of a specialty leading directly to the occupation of farming? 


The following quotations express the same conception 
of rural school purpose: 
In a democracy, the utmost freedom in the choice of an occupation is 


the fundamental right of every child and must not be abridged. If the 
public schools of the city sought to make blacksmiths of the sons of a 
1 McKeever, W. A. — Farm Boys and Girls, p. 101. 


2 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p. 109. 
3 Bailey, L. H. — Training of Farmers, p. 150. 


24 RURAL EDUCATION 


blacksmith and to train the sons of bank directors to follow in the 
footsteps of their fathers, the country would be shaken with protest, 
because the public school, the most powerful agency left us with 
which to promote democracy, was being employed to break down 
democracy and to build up class aristocracy.1 

I know it is popular to say just now that the country school and 
agriculture are inseparably connected and that the welfare of the 
former depends on the extent to which we are able to introduce the 
agriculture note as the dominant one in the work of the country 
school. At the risk of violating this fundamental tenet in the creed 
of many rural school reformers, and speaking for rural elementary 
education, I must say that I believe we are radically wrong where we 
attempt to make any elementary school, whether in city, village, or 
country, the sponsor for any special trade or occupational education. 
. . . What the people who live close to the country school most desire and 
what they have a right to expect is that it shall be a thoroughly common 
school. . . . From this aim rural elementary education cannot be 
diverted without serious danger both to the educational welfare of 
the hundreds of thousands of children who must look to it for their 
school privileges, and to the welfare of the industry of agriculture 
itself? 


V. PREPARING CHILDREN FOR GENERAL EFFICIENCY 
BY SUPPLEMENTING RURAL RESOURCES 


The difference between the point of view represented 
by the preceding and the following quotations is one of 
method and subject matter rather than of purpose. 
Here the aim, also, is to educate the child for general 
social efficiency, for membership in society at large rather 
than in a particular group. But whereas there is a 
tendency among the former group to try to give this 
general education wholly or largely through rural ma- 
terial broadly selected, others are keenly impressed with 
the meagerness of the rural environment, and emphasize 


the importance of making provision for its deficiencies. 
1 Waters, J. H. — School and Society, August 9, 1919, p. 153. 


2‘*A Rational Program for Rural Education.’’ Education, May, 1917, 
p. 546. Payson Smith, Commissioner of Education for Massachusetts. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 25 


To these elementary education must reach out and 
furnish the child the many desirable stimuli and oppor- 
tunities his own environment does not supply. This 
group, believing less in the sufficiency of the rural en- 
vironment to produce such a general education, empha- 
size the importance of supplementing it from other 
sources. This is largely the responsibility of the school. 
The following quotation, especially the italicized sen- 
tences, give the fundamental position of this group: 


Any action of society inspired by the desire “to keep the boy on 
the farm”’ is, it would seem, ill advised. Society advances toward the 
ideal democracy of which we dream through a broadening of the range of 
suggestions which flood the individual. It is the duty of society to 
afford encouragement to every child to choose an occupation other 
than that of the father. Any assumption that the child is to follow 
the parental occupation is unjust. Any artificial limitation of the 
range of suggestions from which the child must choose the materials out 
of which he is to form his life is undemocratic. All attempts to rebuild 
the rural civilization about a rural clergy, or a specialized rural 
teaching force, by which is meant a clergy and a teaching force for 
farmers and the children of farmers are just as undemocratic as 
attempts would be to organize churches and schools for grocers and 
the children of grocers, through the instrumentality of which it 
would be hoped to limit the range of suggestions of the people of this 
occupation to the grocery business. Those who wish to be of true 
service to the rural population, upon acquiring a vision inclusive 
enough to see all humanity as one, will think of the men and women, 
and the boys and girls, upon the nation’s farms primarily as men and 
women, and boys and girls, rather than as farmers and prospective 
farmers.! 


Butterfield views such an idealization of rural life 
thus: 


I am frank to say that I am ready to protest against that phi- 
losophy of rural education which assumes that the rural environment 


1 Holmes, R. H. — American Journal of Sociology, May, 1919. 


26 RURAL EDUCATION 


alone, and by itself, is a sufficiently broad environment for the 
education of the rural child. 


Still more definitely he emphasizes the necessity of 
keeping rural folk in touch with world progress and the 
activities of other groups. Education must bridge the 
gap between the country and city, it must attempt to 
weld into one social unit the diverse groups of our 
present social organization. He says concerning the 
responsibility of education to country children: 

The idea of keeping all the farm boys on the farm is the poorest 
policy we could follow. We cannot afford to arrange our rural 
education so that the boy is obliged to stay on the farm or go to the 
city handicapped in his preparation for life. The door from country 
to city must swing wide. There must be freedom of intercourse between 
city and country. We must not have a peasantry — a rustic group. 
In no parts of our country must there be a possibility of farmers 


being looked down upon or being sharply distinguished from other 
classes in any way that marks them off as a caste.? 


The need of a general culture in a democratic society 
as a basis of common interests through which the various 
groups can cooperate for social progress is well stated by 
Bagley. He criticises those who, through education, 
would increase the group differences by choice of ma- 
terial in this fundamental elementary education. He 
Says: 

It is the insidious notion that what we call general or liberal 
education is needed only by those who are going into the professions; 
that workers in the industrial, agricultural, and commercial fields do 
not need the kind of culture that the general and liberal work of the 
seventh and eighth grades and high school is supposed to represent — 


that instruction in history, in geography, in literature, is really 
vocational education preparing for the “white collar” occupations. 
1“*The Rural School as a Community Center.”’ Education, June, 1916, 


pp. 702-3. 
_ 2 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p. 51. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 27 


And so we have the proposals for differentiated courses in history — 
industrial history for those going into industries, political history for 
those going into the professions; and we have proposals and even 
experiments in the teaching of English which would relegate the great 
masterpieces to white-collar pupils, and feed those destined for other 
callings on the inspiring contents of poultry bulletins and mail-order 
catalogs. 


The position of this last group is that the rural ele- 
mentary school problem its merely one phase of the 
problem of elementary education in a modern democracy. 
Differences exist in the local environment. These are 
to be used as a basis for determining the approach and 
the line of procedure in doing for the child what educa- 
tion in a democracy should do in fitting him for the 
fullest social membership. These local conditions will 
play a part in determining what the child needs to have 
supplied, what he needs to have emphasized, in order 
that his growth may be best both for himself and for 
society at large. The standards which determine what 
he needs are not those of any particular vocation or 
community but rather the general standards of the social 
group. Appreciating the limitations of any particular 
environment, this last group plan to multiply the con- 
tacts between groups, to increase intercourse and ex- 
change of thought, and to break down differences due to 
limitations and group isolation so that individual growth 
may be less limited, social solidarity strengthened, and 
social progress increased. 


1 Bagley, W. C.—WN. E. A. Proceedings, 1916, pp. 960-1. 


CHAPTER II 


PURPOSES OF THE SCHOOL AS RELATED TO 
THE SOLUTION OF ADULT AND COM- 
MUNITY PROBLEMS 


THE second general division in the field of rural school 
objectives concerns the desirable contributions of the 
rural elementary school to adult and community life. The 
tendency of recent years to hold the school responsible 
for more than its former limited task of teaching a few 
fundamental tools of learning has raised the question of 
the limits of this larger field. The unmet needs of the 
school children were many. In considering them atten- 
tion was called to other problems in the social] environ- 
ment closely connected with these new needs of the 
child. Many conditions were found, especially in the 
open country, which could be improved by service from 
some organization. Here, where organized forces and 
leaders were few, the rural school has been called upon 
to serve in many new and varied ways. The rural 
teacher has sometimes been expected not only to teach 
her pupils, in a professional sense, and conduct improve- 
ment enterprises of various sorts for the betterment of 
the school and her own work, but also to develop cooking 
and sewing clubs for the girls; corn, pig, calf, and poultry 
clubs for the boys; homemaking clubs for the women; 
agricultural clubs and marketing associations for the 


men; and Sunday School for all. By some she has been 
28 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 29 


considered naturally responsible for all things left un- 
done in the whole social field, and the school has been 
considered the legitimate social institution to meet any 
unmet need. By others, however, the work of the 
teacher is held to possess a more highly specialized 
character comparable to that of the physician. To 
them it is a professional task of definite scope. The 
elementary teacher’s responsibility and that of the 
institution she represents are limited primarily to the 
field of elementary education. The other social prob- 
lems are not denied importance, but they are not con- 
sidered the particular task of the teacher nor the primary 
responsibility of the school as a social institution. Let 
us now consider various conceptions of the school’s 
relation to this adult and community problem. 


I. RETAINING ADULTS IN THE COUNTRY 


One of the purposes to which the efforts of the rural 
elementary school are to be directed is to that of keep- 
ing on the farm the efficient and successful adult. It is 
characteristic of rural migration that those who have 
been successful as farmers, who are educationally ambi- 
tious for their children, who crave the comforts of a mod- 
ern civilization and the social and intellectual satisfac- 
tions of a larger and more varied group, are usually the 
ones who move to town. But these are also the men 
and women who could lead in the improvement of rural- 
life conditions and their going has robbed rural districts 
of progressive leadership and permitted country life to 
become stagnant. Mabel Carney says: 


Rural migration no longer means only the occasional shifting of a 
few brilliant sons to the city, asformerly. It now implies the uproot- 


30 RURAL EDUCATION 


ing and withdrawal of whole families whose members, for the most 
part, represent the highest idealism and ambition of the country 
community. As a result, leadership has been extracted from rural 
localities, agriculture has declined, and country life has lost prestige 
both socially and economically. 


With this fact in mind, she says that, ‘‘the farm problem, 
then, in its most fundamental aspects, is the problem of 
maintaining a standard people upon our farms.” Later, 
in summing up the advantages of the John Swaney Con- 
solidated School, a school considered most successful 
in meeting the demands upon rural education, she 
states, ‘“‘There is no farm problem and no moving to 
town here.’’? 

In his Rural Infe and Education, after discussing at 
some length the moving to town of the more successful 
farmers and the consequent evil effect upon the com- 
munity, Cubberley says: 

To change this condition is the problem before us. That the 
schools, managed as they have been mainly by country people, are 
largely responsible for the condition in which country communities 
find themselves to-day, there can be little question. The away-from- 
the-farm influence of rural education in the past and its lack of 
adaptability to rural needs have been its marked characteristics. 
That the schools must be the chief agent in turning the current in the 
other direction, there also can be but little question. The farming 
industry represents a large element in our civilization, and schools in 


the country, if they are to be effective rural institutions, must 
represent the civilization of their time and location? 


II. CONTRIBUTING TO ADULT VOCATIONAL EFFICIENCY 


The school may serve the adult problem in still an- 
other way than by retaining native rural leaders to direct 


1 Carney, Mabel — Country Lie and the Country School, p. 2. 
2 Ibid. — p. 158. | 
8 Cubberley, E. P. — Rural Life and Education, p. 118. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 31 


this revival. It may improve those who remain by 
increasing their productive efficiency. There are two 
types of argument advanced for the necessity of improv- 
ing the vocational efficiency of the farming population 
in this way. One approaches it from the standpoint 
of the farmer himself and demands that such new power 
be given him in order that he may be able to rebuild 
rural life in higher and more satisfying terms. The 
other approaches from a standpoint showing less con- 
sideration for the farmer’s larger life but much concern 
for those who depend upon the farmer. In this case he 
is of interest to society largely because he feeds it. 
Such is the attitude in the following: 


Confronted by this danger (the paralysis of the entire economic 
and social organism), the nation is turning to the rural school because 
... the rural school more than any other one instrument to-day controls 
the food supply of the nation. 


The former point of view, where the farmer’s interests 
are concerned, is stated as follows: 


The course of study must be changed to help solve the farmers’ 
economic problems, to point the way to a new era of health and 
sanitation in country communities, to place before the boys and girls 
new ideals of citizenship.? 


In the immediate objective for the rural school these 
writers would agree. It is to increase the vocational 
efficiency of the adult, primarily along lines of produc- 
tion. Theschool’s purposes, the measure of its success, 
the introduction of the newer subjects, and the basis of 
the school’s appeal for support are put in these terms. 

1 Eggleston and Bruére — The Work of the Rural School, p. 3. 


2 Waters, J. H. — President Kansas State Agricultural College, in the 
introduction to Kirkpatrick’s Rural Schools from Within. 


32 RURAL EDUCATION 


An Objective in School Service. — In the following 
quotation the purpose of the school is seen to be the 
making of a definite contribution to the farmer’s money 
income and to the world’s supply of food: 


The rural school should help the farmer to obtain greater returns 
from the labor he expends, and at the same time aid him in providing a 
larger supply of food for the millions who are dependent on the yield of 
the soil for their daily bread. . . . It is safe to say that they could 
double the profits from the farms with little additional labor, if they 
would put into practice as good methods of farming and stock 
raising as are now known and easily available to all. And the most 
natural and effective way to put the farmer into possession of the 
scientific knowledge and skill required is through the rural school. 


The elementary rural school must do its part if this 
knowledge is to reach the farmers. 


High schools are introducing courses in agriculture, and normal 
schools are opening courses to prepare teachers for this field of work. 
But by far the greatest factor available for the agricultural education 
of our boys and girls is the rural school. . . . Jf the great mass of our 
farmers are to be taught to obtain the largest fruits from their work, and 
to return the greatest amount from the sovl for the food supply of the 
world, this instruction must be given in the rural school.? 


In a discussion on the purpose of elementary agricul- 
ture and its contribution to the community, the bulletin 
of the United States Bureau of Education on a Course 
of Study for Rural Teachers by Mutchler and Craig 
contains the following: 


Such work would very materially increase the aggregate returns 
from the farm. . . . Suppose our rural teachers set for themselves the 
problem of increasing the corn crop five bushels to the acre, what 
would be the result? 3 


1 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 26. 
2 Ibid. — p. 30. 
3’ Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 1, 1912, p. 14. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 33 


One teacher saw this as his particular problem in the 
rural school situation in which he found himself. Hewas 
a young man in charge of ‘‘three rural schools of the 
traditional cheese-box type.’ The report is made with 
favorable comment by Eggleston and Bruére as follows: 


The problem that confronted this young man was precisely the 
problem which, in one form or another, confronts rural school workers 
everywhere in the nation to-day. If he was to hold the children on 
the land he must make rural life economically, socially, and spiritually 
attractive to them. To make rural life attractive he must increase the 
general wealth of the community, and in order to increase the com- 
munity’s general wealth he must train the farmers and their children in 
modern methods of agriculture and business management, and in the 
principles of cooperative marketing — through the school. 


Then while discussing the same problem the teacher 
says: 


So far, we of the school have attempted to interest our patrons in 
the following program: a larger crop of corn, ...alarger hay crop, . 
the substitution of seed potatoes grown in the mountains of our 
own state for imported potatoes,. . .more green manure,. . . the 
introduction of cow peas,. . . more hogs and better hogs, . . . more 
sheep, . . . securing earlier and more prolific varieties of cotton,.. . 
starting, or rather arousing, interest in a farmers’ codperative com- 
pany, .. .the establishment of a thorough, practical county school of 
cooking, sewing, and economy for the girls. Why should not the 
girls use the favorite, long-treasured special recipes of their mothers 
and grandmothers to make for profit wholesome, good, toothsome, 
appetizing, pure preserves for marketing in town, to poor city people 
who now have to use canned stuff?? 


There seems to be no doubt in the minds of the preced- 
ing writers as to the fitness of such a purpose for the 
rural elementary school. 

Influence upon Subject Matter.— The practical 
needs of the adult have determined the type of agricul- 


1 Eggleston and Bruére — The Work of the Rural School, p. 12. 
2 Ibid. — p. 14. 


34 RURAL EDUCATION 


ture that has come to prevail in places. Starting with 
nature study because of its general educational value and 
its many relations to the child’s experiences, it gives way 
to a more practical agriculture. As Cubberley states: 


The next thought was to improve the instruction by modifying and 
enriching it, and by adjusting it more fully to the needs of country 
life. This was a fruitful idea. During the late nineties a form of 
generalized nature study was introduced into many rural schools. 
An attempt has since been made to transform this into instruction in 
agriculture. Economic needs have greatly stimulated this move- 
ment.! 


Such general values as are aimed at by nature study, 
however, do not serve the purpose which some have for 
this new study. G. C. Creelman, President of Ontario 
Agricultural College, would make it more definitely 
practical. 3 


Agriculture seems to be especially hard, not to introduce, but to get 
practical results therefrom. It is easy to interest children in plant 
and animal stories, but it 7s not easy to instruct children so that an im- 
provement is readily seen in the field crops and the flocks and herds and 
the home life of the neighborhood.? 


Influence on Club Work. — Club work for children 
has often been introduced as a means of interesting 
adults in the problems of better production. In Illinois, 
says Foght, 


Interest in the annual farmers’ institute had been lagging... . At 
this juncture its president introduced a happy innovation; — he 
advertised that he would send free to any farmer boy who applied as 
much of the finest seed corn procurable in the state as a one cent 
stamp would carry; the boys to exhibit their product at the annual 
meeting of the farmers’ institute and receive small prizes for the best 
corn raised.3 


1 Cubberley, E. P. — The Improvement of Rural Schools, pp. 4-5. 
:N. E. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 949. 
8 Foght, H. W. — The American Rural ARE: pp. 221-3. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 35 


The following writer also takes the view that club 
work should increase production and he would make it a 
definite part of the curriculum. In a paper on ‘How 
the Curriculum May Better Meet Present-day Social 
Needs,” after two or three pages of discussion dealing 
with the retarded production of New England Agri- 
culture, he says: 


Perhaps you feel that I have gone far afield from the topic assigned 
for discussion, and that I have launched out on an argument for 
preparedness in our agriculture uncalled for at this time. If I have 
done so, it has been with the hope that I might find a proper setting 
for the presentation of one phase of our rural education which in 
some cases has been developed as a part of our school curriculum, and 
in others as a subject almost extraneous to it. I refer to what has 
been commonly called the Boys’ and Girls’ Club Work. ...I can 
see more real relief in this movement from such situations as I have 
previously described than in any other with which I have come in 
contact.! 


Adult Vocational Efficiency as a Test of School Re- 
sults. — The chief results of the service of the school 
to the community and the nation have been measured 
by some in these economic terms. Betts and Hall see 
it as follows: 

An increase of even five bushels to the acre would have netted the 
state over ten million dollars additional income from corn crop. 
And it is one of the opportunities of the rural school to show how to 
obtain the increased yield... . It is the claim of government statis- 
ticians that the rural schools of Canada increased the wheat yield in 
certain regions of that country five bushels per acre in a few years’ 
time. 

Sometimes this responsibility of the school for adult 
vocational efficiency is merely implied, as in the follow- 

1 Article by W. D. Hurd, formerly Director of Extension Service, Massa- 


chusetts Agricultural College, published in Education, May, 1917. 
2 Betts and Hall—Better Rural Schools, p. 28. 


36 RURAL EDUCATION 


ing from Bailey, where he is discussing the common 
schools and farming: 


The country is well peopled with good farmers, in spite of the fact 
that the school in the open country has given them no direct aid in 
their business.! 


The Report of the Commission on Country Life declares 
that by its interpretation the public in general is looking 
to the rural school for agricultural efficiency. It says: 


The schools are held to be largely responsible for ineffective farm- 
ing, lack of ideals, and the drift to town. 


As a Means of Securing Support. — Moreover, leaders 
in education find in this vocational service to adults 
through the elementary school a means of justifying the 
school to the community and a basis of continued or 
additional support. In the following quotations such 
a view is presented. From Betts and Hall we have it 
stated thus: 


Let the rural school show its value by making an immediate and 
practical contribution to the welfare and success of its community, and 
there will be no lack of financial or moral support on the part of its 
patrons. . . . One Illinois rural district paid the teacher one hundred 
and ten dollars a month, nine hundred and ninety dollars a year, in 
1913 for teaching a one-room school in which the vocational ideal 
dominates.? 


Kern has found the following as the solution of rural 
school support: 


If educators can show him (the farmer) that a study of highbred 
corn and soil will bring substantial returns, he is willing to spend more 
money on the country school and spend it in a better way? 


1 Bailey, L. H.— The Training of Farmers, p. 137. 
2 Betts and Hall — Better Rural Schools, pp. 106-7. 
’ Kern, O. J. — Among Country Schools, p. 205, 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 37 


The same attitude is expressed for the South by 
C. H. Law, who says: 


The problems of securing the interests of pupils in the common 
school branches, of teaching in an effective way farm economy, and of 
gaining the abiding interest of the school patrons seem to have their 
solution in the correlation of agriculture with the common school 
branches by means of boys’ and girls’ clubs. 


III. DEVELOPING A BROAD RURAL CITIZENSHIP 


Partly as an action against this conception of the 
school which sees the whole problem of rural life in 
terms of production and income, there is a group who 
think of rural folk as people of varied interests, many 
of which are higher than economic satisfaction. It is 
the purpose of this group to make the service of the 
rural school to the adult include more than the mere 
increase of income or production. Foght says: 


Our agricultural population is suffering as much from want of a 
vision-giving breadth of culture as from the want of technical prepara- 
tion for their life work. . . . A broad measure of academic culture 
should, therefore, be considered a first essential to all rural teaching 
success.” 


In another connection he states the same position as 
follows: 


The new school curriculum is based on what the farmer and his 
wife ought to know. ‘There is, first of all, the human element to be 
considered. This includes health and happiness. Then comes the 
preparation of the members of the family for the privileges and 
responsibilities of citizenship, and, finally, their right to a preparation 
that will help them to make a good living from the soil‘ 


1 Bulletin, 1913, No. 132, p. 1. Office of Experiment Stations, United 
States Department of Agriculture. 

2 Foght, H. W. — The Rural Teacher and His Work, p. 9. 

3 Ibid. — pp. 11-12. 


38 RURAL EDUCATION 


Both aspects are included by Arp, who sees, however, 
that economic efficiency is merely a means for accom- 
plishing the larger end of making a “happy” home 
situation. Hesays: 

Rural life centers about the country home and in the one great 
rural industry, agriculture. Therefore, the farmer’s big, vital 
problem is how to make his country home the happiest and best 
possible place to dwell in while engaged in his life work, and how to 
make agriculture profitable, enjoyable, and capable of supporting 
the right kind of a home. That for this reason agriculture is the 
logical subject around which to build the rural school curriculum, is 
self evident. 


Butterfield, while not here definitely speaking of the 
school’s task in connection with such work, but rather 
of the education of rural people, says for those who are 
emphasizing this side of the rural problem: 

Instinctively, we all know that the great aid given by education to 
the farmer consists in helping him to work out his human problem — 
how to take and keep his place in society — and yet we are short- 
sighted enough to call the students of these subjects theorists, and we 
continue to demand educational results merely in terms of bigger 
crops.” 

IV. SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY 


The fourth group of writers dealing with the respon- 
sibility of the school to the adult includes those who 
distinctly emphasize its responsibility and service to the 
local community in building a community spirit, in 
reorganizing rural life, or in solving local problems. This 
interpretation of function somewhat overlaps those 
formerly discussed, and yet it involves certain distinct 
aspects. The problem is that of community building in 
all its various phases. The conception of the school as 


1 Arp, J. B. — Rural Education and the Consolidated School, p. 82. 
2 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p. 120. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 39 


the distinct servant of the local community has played a 
large part in the writings of rural educators. The fact 
that the home and other institutions are doing less than 
heretofore toward fitting the child for his social respon- 
sibilities has given rise to the belief that education must 
accept this added responsibility. 

Responsibility for All Problems. — This responsibility 
of the school is not limited, however, to serving children 
along the broader lines of education compatible with its 
professional nature. The school, it is claimed, is a 
social institution. As such, it must serve the society in 
which it is placed and, in the instance of the rural com- 
munity, it should consider itself responsible for all com- 
munity problems. There is no limit to the scope of the 
service that may justly be demanded of it. As an 
expression of this large field of responsibility, we have the 
following: 

The task of the new school is not limited to the children in the 


school; it reaches into the farm house and seems to be helpful there — 
its task is to make all country life scientific and more contented. 


Mrs. Harvey, in her experimental school in the Porter 
Community, saw the same problem which Miss Dewey 

states thus: 

The main problem to her and her supporters was to develop a 
school which should function adequately as a vital part of the com- 


munity. This was a particularly difficult problem, because it in- 
volved creating not only the school, but almost the community itself.? 


Service Primarily to Local Needs. — The local nature 
of such service is another phase of this particular aspect 
1 The Consolidated School as a Community Center, article in The Rural 


School Messenger, State Teachers’ College, Kirksville, Missouri, p. 40. 
2 Dewey, Evelyn — New Schools for Old, p. 68. 


40 RURAL EDUCATION 


of the question. The school is not responsible for social 
problems in general but primarily for the social problems 
of the local community. Betts states it as follows: 

The problem of any type of school is to serve its constituency. 
This is to be done through relating the curriculum, the organization, 


and the teaching of the school to the immediate interests and needs of 
the people dependent on the school for their education. 


J. Y. Joyner, former State Superintendent of Educa- 
tion for North Carolina, has the same conception in 
mind when he says: 


Rural education is primarily for country folks, and therefore 
should be adapted to the needs of country folks.? 


Foght takes the same position in this statement: 


Educational systems are made for man, and not man for educa- 
tional systems; and what these systems shall embrace must necessarily be 
governed by the dominant interest of the community? 


In the following quotation from President Sledd of the 
University of Florida this idea stands out also. It should 
be noted here that the use of the term needs, as in the 
foregoing quotations, refers not to the demands made 
upon country people in terms of their larger social mem- 
bership, but primarily to their needs as members of the 
local community and as farmers. This is shown by 
his recommendation of agricultural instruction as the © 
solution to these needs. He says: 

Educational policy is to be adjusted to local conditions. This 
means that there is no standard type of education that is applicable to 
all men everywhere, and that the determining factor in educational 


policy is the varying needs and conditions of the sections or classes 
whom it is proposed to educate. p. 53. 
1 Betts, G. H. — New Ideals in Rural Schools, p. 17. 


2N. E. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 270. 
3’ Foght, H. W. — The American Rural School, p. 205. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 41 


On the principle of fundamental needs specialized by environment 
perfect uniformity of school policy would be as impossible as it is 
undesirable. . . . Every school would teach first what its constituency 
needed, and thus the school, instead of being an alien something laid 
upon the community from without, would become a vital expression 
of the community’s needs, and a natural center of communal life. 
p. 54. 

Under this principle a school in a rural community would provide 
primarily for agricultural instruction. p. 55.1 


Differentiation of Child Needs. — Others, instead of 
permitting these local needs to determine educational 
policy, recognize that the child’s needs may not be the 
same. These two demands, however, are to some of 
equal importance. Such is the conception of Cubberley 
and Arp, as shown in the following quotations: 


The conservation of soil fertility; the improvement of farming 
methods; the preservation of the natural scenery of the community; 
the dissemination of agricultural and general knowledge; the prepara- 
tion for the intelligent use of leisure time; the improvement of home 
life; the conservation of child life, girlhood, and motherhood; the 
stimulating of social organizations to useful activity; and, in general, 
the development of a better rural society; — all of these are as much 
legitimate functions of the redirected school as 1s the teaching to read and 
write and cipher.? 

While the city schools can call to their aid many social and civic 
institutions and agencies to supplement their efforts, such things are 
entirely lacking or difficult to establish and maintain in the rural 
districts. Accordingly, this additional work of social redirection and 
community building becomes the natural and logical function of the 
rural school just as truly as the instruction of boys and girls in the 
fundamentals of an elementary education. 


As Miss Carney sees it, this work has an importance 
nearly equal to that of the more distinctly educational 
service to the children. She says: 


1 Bulletin 212, 1909, Office of Experiment Stations, Department of Agri- 
culture. : 

2 Cubberley, E. P. — Rural Life and Education, p. 174. 

3 Arp, J. B. — Rural Education and the Consolidated School, p. 49. 


42 RURAL EDUCATION 


Expressing this twofold task of the school — that is, its educational 
and its social responsibility — as one, the complete function of the 
country school may be summarized in the phrase, the country school 
as a center for redirected education and community building.! 


And further: 


The school is the best and most available center for the upbuild- 
ing of the country community and may become the most immediate 
and effective local agency in the solution of the farm problem.? 


For her, however, such service is a temporary function, 
to be released when other agencies have been created. 
This effort ‘‘to introduce various phases of rural improve- 
ment and to institute immediate progress” is not to 
involve a sacrifice of the children. 

It should be clearly understood, however, that the social inter- 
pretation of the function of the country school made here does not 
necessarily imply, and should by no means tolerate, a neglect of its 


educational responsibility. The first duty of every school, as for- 
merly stated, is to educate’ 


This Local Purpose Determines the Task of the 
Teacher. — In the preparation and choice of a teacher, 
this phase of the work must be considered, while the 
teacher, in accepting her task, must assume these general 
social needs as an equally important part of her work. 
Vogt states his conception thus: 


The modern ideal in education recognizes no close dividing lines in 
the educational system, and the school is becoming an instrument of 
service to the entire community, both old and young, . . . With this 
principle in mind it becomes obvious that the social obligation of the 
school teacher is as wide as the community, and his work 1s that of build- 
ing civilization in every part that is not receiving adequate attention by 
other agencies.* 


1 Carney, Mabel — Country Life and the Country School, p. 134. 
2 Ibid. — p. 135. 

3 Ibid. — p. 136. 

« Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 268. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 43 


In his Training of Farmers, Bailey quotes F. A. Cotton, 
formerly State Superintendent of Indiana, to this 
effect: 


The community life with its dominant interest, agriculture, must 
determine the nature of the work in the school and the mode of procedure. 
The teachers must be .. . willing . . . to take the solution of the 
community’s economic, social, and educational problems as their 
life work.! 


In the following quotation there is an additional agency 
introduced, that is, “‘the social philosopher.’ This 
worker is to serve the adult population in the develop- 
ment of a proper social life. His purpose, in general, is 
the same as that of the teacher. But the teacher works 
upon local community problems of every sort as a means 
of preparing the children for their rural future and 
through them of building a better community life, while 
he is concerned chiefly with the present problems of 
adults. This relation of the workers is brought out as 
- follows: 


Here the rural teacher must work hand in hand with the social 
philosopher. In many ways their fields of activity coincide and their 
interests blend. . . . Indeed, their aim is the same — the improvement of 
all rural conditions and activities whether they be intellectual or social, 
material or ethical. The main difference lies in the point of attack 
and methods of procedure. The teacher’s work is from within, with 
the child in school; the social philosopher proceeds from without and 
deals mainly with the parent. The former begins at the fountain 
source — the child mind and child heart —and prepares the children 
for the new rural life; but without this impulse from without, furnished 
by reformers in high places, the work of winning over the parents, of 
convincing them of the need of change, would be both difficult and 
slow.? 


1 Bailey, L. H. — Training of Farmers, p. 165. 
2 Foght, H. W. — The American Rural School, p. 10. 


44 RURAL EDUCATION 


V. SERVING THE CHILD AND SOCIETY RATHER THAN 
THE LOCAL GROUP 


The preceding quotation serves as a means for intro- 
ducing the last aspect of this particular question. It 
suggests the field of the social philosopher, or engineer, 
who would assume the responsibility of looking after the 
problems of the community as a whole and particularly 
of those social and recreational needs which apply 
primarily to the adults of the community. This would 
allow the teacher to specialize upon the child problems 
of the community, the work which has heretofore been 
considered his specific field. ‘The flaw in the solution 
offered by Foght is that he does not distinguish between 
the purpose of one who is working with adults in an 
accepted vocation and of another who is working with 
children in the elementary school where preparation for 
any definite local end is outside the purpose. To him 
the social philosopher and the teacher have the same 
function, the one directing the adult and the other the 
child to a fuller life in the rural environment. Such a 
position is tenable only when one sees in every rural 
child a predetermined member of a rural society. 

But those who see the child as a member of society at 
large, and the elementary school as an institution set 
aside to make possible for him his own fullest growth and 
most satisfactory social membership, object to the 
child’s being burdened with the social problems of his 
own chance environment. They would not let these 
problems interfere with the child’s rightful opportunity 
— a limitation which must result if the rural elementary 
school and its leader, the teacher, are used as agents for 





PROPOSED PURPOSES 45 


solving adult community problems. Such problems 
are not the responsibility of the child, nor of the elemen- 
tary school and, in the judgment of the following author, 
they are not even a problem for rural people solely. 
These problems, like other large social questions, are 
tasks for the whole of our organized society. ‘To refer 
these rural needs solely to rural folk shows a failure to 
appreciate the common interests and responsibilities of 
society. But to refer them to the rural child, the rural 
teacher, or the rural school, shows an even greater mis- 
conception of individual rights and institutional purposes. 
The following quotation emphasizes this point of view: 


It is entirely unjust to assume that as the children of the soil enter 
the inheritance of the nation and the race in things social, with prob- 
lems of individual adjustment to solve, they must proceed to the 
solution burdened by the responsibility for occupational progress. 
Though it may be true, as is often stated, that agricultural conditions 
in America are upon a lower plane than are those of any other leading 
nation, it does not at all follow that farmers of to-day, either indi- 
vidually or in the mass, should be held accountable for such an unsatis- 
factory condition. It is the height of injustice to encircle the farmers 
of to-day with a line of artificial isolation and call out to them to 
proceed with the development of their destiny. The farmer does not 
have to solve farm problems. Instead he may leave them as farmers 
are doing by the hundreds of thousands every year. Society as a 
whole is responsible for conditions as they are. Society through its 
constant reorganization will include in some way the business of the 
new agricultural production. We need not fear that fields will long 
go untilled in a land of such agricultural possibilities. Society 
desiring the products of the land will pay the price for their produc- 
tion. An adequate price in terms of real life-values will be paid. We 
need not concern ourselves with the business of designating the men 
and women who are to take up the actual work of the new agriculture. 
The forces of competition will decide this thing for agriculture as 
they are now deciding it for other activities of our industrial life. 
There can be no permanent wall of separation between the country 
with its occupations and the city with its affairs, for we are one 


46 RURAL EDUCATION 


people and we are learning with increasing thoroughness how we 
may best live together in the give and take of life. 


Coffman very clearly states the dangers arising from 
an attempt to overload the child with information con- 
cerning his own particular environment at the expense of 
more general acquaintance with the facts and con- 
ditions of the world at large. 


Another of the stock arguments for the differentiation of the 
curriculum in these upper grades is that it should be organized to 
serve the needs of the community in which the school is located. We 
have no desire to minimize the importance of this conception. Weare 
convinced that there should be many more contacts than now exist 
between the school and the community, that we have not yet become 
sufficiently sensitive and self-conscious concerning the possibilities of 
social service through such contacts. The localization of the 
activities of the school in terms of the dominant industries and 
activities of the community will vitalize the curriculum and motivate 
instruction. It will make a direct appeal to the pupils and it will 
encourage local support for the schools. These results are highly 
desirable. But attempts to localize the school curriculum may result in 
a situation inimical to the interests of democracy. The natural conse- 
quence of localization may mean an accentuation of the differences 
already existing between the communities. If such be the case, and if 
the practice be extended indefinitely, then one of the great obligations 
of the public school will be neglected. If, as is generally admitted, 
the common school, and in that we would include the seventh and 
eighth grades, is the agent of universal education, if the status of a 
nation among the nations of the world can be determined by the 
attention it is giving to the general education of the masses, tf social 
solidarity depends upon likemindedness rather than upon unlikeminded- 
ness, then we must safeguard those things which make for the homo- 
geneity of our people, and not accentuate unduly community differences 


Such a localization of the curriculum as is here described 
seems to be characteristic of all efforts to use the rural 


1 Holmes, R. H. — ‘Influences of the Industrial and Social Revolution 
Upon the Agricultural Industry of America,’’ American Journal of Sociology, 
May, 1919, pp. 701-2. 

* Coffman, L. D. — N. HE. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 955. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 4? 


school as a means of advancing adult economic and 
community interests. 

This interpretation of rural school purpose does not 
deny the importance of such problems. All of these 
issues have a place in the educative endeavor of a democ- 
racy, but the ends of adult vocational and community 
effort are not the same as those for the education of 
children, and the rural elementary school must not be 
diverted from its primary task, or have its service to 
children handicapped by responsibilities not consistent 
with its fundamental purpose. Only in so far as the 
solution of these questions functions in the better educa- 
tion of children, do théy become legitimate fields of 
activity for the rural elementary school and teacher. 


CHAPTER III 


PURPOSES OF THE SCHOOL AS RELATED TO 
NON-RURAL SOCIAL FORCES AND ORGANI-— 
ZATIONS 


EACH writer quoted above has interpreted the relation- 
ship of the school to other social forces and organizations 
in terms of the purpose held for rural elementary educa- 
tion. This question appeared in early rural writings 
where the authors deplored the evil influences of the 
“‘citified’’ course of study upon the stability of the farm 
population. The definite attempt to weave some sort 
of unity out of the scattered and individualistic social 
forces of the rural community has raised the issue again, 
while many other interests have conspired to keep it 
before the attention of rural workers. In so far as the 
school is concerned, there seem to have been three dif- 
ferent answers to this question each of which will be 
treated in turn. 


I, DEVELOPING A PURELY RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMU- 
NITY CENTER 


The first group to be presented are those who would 
isolate the school and the rural community from too many 
contacts with the rest of the social world represented 
especially by the urban community. These would 
locate the school in a purely-rural environment, use 


ruralized material to the fullest extent in the course of 
48 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 49 


study, and make the community sufficiently satisfying 
to retain the interests of its members within its restricted 
limits. 3 

From the expressions of those who aim to create a 
completely satisfying social center for rural folk so that 
contact with the town will not be desired, we have the 
following: 


To counteract the allurements of an evening in town by the right 
kind of recreation, which would give the boys a chance for the 
necessary sociability and fun, was the hardest problem that these 
parents had to meet.! 


This was partly solved by a community band whose 
success 1s measured as follows: 


It is so popular that the young people give up Saturday nights to 
band practice, with scarcely a regret for the trips to town.? 


In the earlier consideration of the value of the con- 
solidated school the idea of its harmful influence on rural 
children came to light. Its deplorable tendencies are 
thus stated by Hyatt, former State Superintendent of 
California: 


But let us hold our horses long enough to inquire as to the real 
influence of the centralized school upon rural children, its power to 
create rural ideals, to buzld rural inclinations, rural tendencies. . . . The 
centralized school is located in the largest town in the neighborhood. 
The children are transported, yes, from the country to the town! 
And their minds are transported no less than their bodies! Their 
most impressionable years are spent away from the country in 
absorbing the things that will fit them for life in the city, that will 
probably unfit them for happiness, content, and success in the country 3 


1 Dewey, Evelyn — New Schools for Old, p. 126. 
2 Ibid. — p. 127. 
aN. HE. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 1027. 


50 RURAL EDUCATION 


Foght, in discussing the various kinds of consolidated 
schools, says: 

The last type of consolidated school to call for consideration is the 
purely rural. This is the ideal type. It contemplates the establish- 
ment of the school right in the heart of the rural community, where 


the child can dwell in close communion with nature, away from the 
attractions and allurements of the crty. 


Joyner, former State Superintendent of Education for 
North Carolina, in discussing problems of rural education, 
makes the following remarks which show the trend of his 
thinking: 

Rural education is the education of country folks in the country 
for the country. This definition includes the three things that in 
my opinion should be the determining factors in rural education: 

(1) Rural education is primarily for country folks and therefore 
should be adapted to the needs of country folks. 

(2) The purpose of rural education is primarily to educate 
country folks for the country, not for the towns. 

(8) The best place for the education of country folks for the country 
as in the country itself, not in the town.? 


II. CONSOLIDATING SCHOOLS AND DEVELOPING COMMU- 
NITY CENTERS IN RURAL-MINDED VILLAGES 


In the next position to be presented on this question 
the relations of the rural school and the size of the rural 
community are not quite so sharply restricted. To 
these writers it seems wiser, more economical, and more 
natural to use the small villages as centers for consolida- 
tion. It is further held that if town centers but prop- 
erly understood their own interests they would ally 
themselves with rural forces as a means of self-growth 
and development. So it was partly to reform these 


1Foght, H. W.— The American Rural School, p. 324. 
2N. EH. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 270. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 51 


small villages and to direct their school curricula more 
effectively to the solution of rural life problems, that 
this idea of town and country codperation was first con- 
templated by rural leaders. But in this union of town 
and country forces, care was to be exercised in the choice 
of the town. It must be one that would reinforce rural 
interests. As a transition from this point of view, we 
have the following: 


In Randolph County consolidation has centered the new school in 
some “rural-minded”’ village, thus providing grade and high school 
instruction. Jn no instance, however, have the ideals of real consolida- 
tion been approximated. That is, we have yet to build our first 
complete farm school in the open country, offering there all the advan- 
tages now being offered city children.! 


This possibility is more acceptable to Foght, who 
Says: 


A third type of consolidated school results from closing rural schools 
and transporting to a neighboring village. This has its opponents 
who assert with much force that what is needed is not some additional 
convenience for sending children to village and city, to educate them 
away from the country, but educational facilities right out in the 
rural districts as good as there can be found in the city, which shall 
train for the farm, and for the farm only.? 

On the other hand, if the village is so small that it has none except 
rural interests, there is little reason why consolidation cannot be 
practiced there as well as in the open country. 


Kirkpatrick takes a still more positive attitude toward 

this movement. He sees distinct rural interest in these 

towns and finds much advantage for the rural group in 

uniting with the towns in this educational endeavor. It 

should be noted, however, that it is the purpose in these 
1 The Rural School Messenger, Kirksville, Mo., p. 46. 


2 Foght, H. W. — The American Rural School, p. 320. 
3 Ibid. — p. 320. 


52 RURAL EDUCATION 


varying statements to keep the school quite within the 
realm of strictly rural interests. Kirkpatrick says: 


Our rural towns (of 2500 or smaller population) must furnish the 
basis or the nucleus for the first consolidated schools. . . . It has been 
argued by some that the rural school should not be connected with 
the rural town schools because the interests of these are so widely 
different, but the interests are not widely different. 


III. MAKING RURAL INSTITUTIONS AND PEOPLE A PART 
OF THE SOCIAL WHOLE 


Isolation Socially and Individually Undesirable. — 
The purpose of this isolation in the rural school and of 
the attempt to build a wall around the rural community 
is thus analyzed by Holmes, who says: 


An extreme though perfectly logical position is held by those who 
advocate erection outside of towns of rural school buildings for 
centralized agricultural districts to make it possible to educate the 
children of farmers out of contact with the children of city dwellers. 
In these centralized schools attended only by the children of farmers 
the instruction would beof a nature calculated to inspire the individual 
child with a desire to remain upon the land. The way would be made 
easy for him to prepare for the occupation of agriculture, and very 
naturally, if he were carefully guarded from suggestions that would 
have a tendency to fill him with ideals of success to be obtained in 
other callings, he would choose the one that had been constantly held 
before him, thus following in the footsteps of his father, upon a 
higher plane technically but a farmer still. The movement to town 
would be checked.” 


Such a position is objected to as savoring of autocracy, 
because it prevents each individual from choosing freely 
among possible vocations, and of receiving an elementary 
school preparation which will open any of these doors 


1 Kirkpatrick, M. G. — The Rural School from Within, p. 256. 

2 Holmes, R. H. — ‘Influence of the Industrial and Social Revolution 
upon the Agricultural Industry of America.’”’” The American Journal of 
Sociology, May, 1919, p. 700. 





PROPOSED PURPOSES 53 


wide and prepare him at the same time for active co- 
operation in the social problems of a democracy. The 
following method is suggested by Holmes: 


As opposed to this mechanical method of procedure which advances 
by drawing circles about different sections of society and dealing 
with whatever may be found within each circle as if it really had a 
separate existence, there is also the genetic method of approach which 
leads one to avoid with hearty distrust anything savoring of circle 
drawing. One holding the genetic view of society will think of those 
now upon the nation’s farms as being a body of people not funda- 
mentally unlike those who inhabit the towns. . . . Farmers, in the 
mass, are rightly considered a backward people because of the con- 
stant echoing of the past in the ears of the individual by the old 
type of family whose function it was to dominate the individual 
in every phase of his life’s activity. . . . As the farmer families are 
caught up into more complete social unity with individuals of other 
occupations this progress (of the urban folk) will also be theirs.2 


Isolation Not Consistent with Actual Relations. — 
Galpin, in his study of rural-urban relations, shows that 
such a tendency to isolate rural folk, to build a com- 
munity life among purely rural people, or within a rural 
atmosphere, is contrary to the actual social relations. 


The foregoing analysis of the use of the leading institutions of each 
center by the farm population discloses the fact, however, that these 
institutions are agencies of social service over a comparatively 
determinable and fixed area of land surrounding each center; that 
this social service is precisely the same in character as is rendered to 
those people — whether artisans, employees, or professional persons 
— who happen to live within the corporate limits of the city or vil- 
lage. . . . It is difficult, if not impossible to avoid the conclusion that 
the trade zone about one of these rather complete agricultural civic 
centers, forms the boundary of an actual, if not legal, community, 
within which the apparent entanglement of human life is resolved 
into a fairly unitary system of inter-relatedness.? 


1 Ibid. — p. 701. 
2 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, pp. 84-7. 


54 ‘RURAL EDUCATION 


The efforts of those who are striving to build a satisfac- 
tory social, business, and institutional life among purely 
rural folk he characterizes as follows: 


Broadly speaking, ruralism proposes a self-sufficing rural sociak 
system, founded upon the segregation of farmers and farmer groups 
and farmer institutions. The radical ruralist interprets ‘rural 
codperation”’ as technical methods of farmers uniting with farmers 
to do business collectively in competition with urban business; rural 
schools are schools in the country, for country, by the country; rural 
churches are farmers’ churches, better churches than at present, 
better built, the flocks better shepherded, better organized, but still 
separate and distinct from town or city; rural recreation, in the 
picture of the radical ruralist, consists of farm sports, reverting to the 
barn dance, to the type of the husking-bee, the barn-raising, house 
warming, spelling-match, singing-school, and neighborhood picnic. 
Carried to its radical conclusion, ruralism would erect a rural society 
of the members of a single occupation, which would develop its own 
culture and civilization. 


Against this tendency he proposes the following: 


The second school of thinking may be termed rurbanism. As the 
word rurban is formed by blending rural into urban, so the idea of 
rurbanism is that, as the rural population of America is an integral 
part of the nation, so the open country is an element in the clustered 
town, and the town is a factor of the land, and the civilization, 
culture, and development of rural people are to be found in con- 
junction with town and small city, and not apart.? 

These men then, oppose any solution of the rural problem 
which would draw a circle around the community and 
isolate it from contact with all non-rural interests. 
They object also to building the school in the open 
country where the children will be limited to a ruralized 
mental diet and where every suggestion will lead to a 
future on the farm. As a substitute they propose to 
break down such barriers and to treat rural folk as a part 


1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, p. 62. 
2 Ibid. — p. 64. 


PROPOSED PURPOSES 55 


of the social whole, a group whose interests — com- 
munity, vocational, and individual—can be _ best 
served by a more complete association with the other 
groups in society. 

Conclusion. — We have presented here at some 
length a wide range of proposals for rural elementary 
education, It is evident that these are far from con- 
sistent. They differ not only in the purpose of elemen- 
tary education but also in many details of the curriculum. 
They involve different conceptions of the desirable social 
organization, and imply different ends and methods of 
individual development. They vary in their scale of 
relative values and consequently aim to secure dif- 
ferent results from education. Not all of these con- 
flicting tendencies can be equally good. In order, then, 
to criticize and evaluate them a study of underlying 
principles is essential. Such a study is the purpose of 
the next two chapters. 





PART II 
STANDARDS FOR JUDGING THESE PURPOSES 


Ath 


ae 
M4 








CHAPTER IV 


THE NATURE OF “ THE GOOD LIFE” — 
INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 


In the first three chapters of this discussion we have 
found varying conceptions of the purpose, content, and 
organization of rural elementary education. These 
were far from consistent. This inconsistency gave rise 
to the question of their relative values. To evaluate 
them it is necessary to study the basic principles of that 
type of life we call good. What constitutes ‘‘the good 
life’? What type of individual is contemplated in the 
good life? What conditions are essential to its realiza- 
tion? What is the type of social organization implied? 
What demands are made upon group relations? How is 
democracy related to the good life? Such questions as 
these must be considered before we can hope to determine 
the question of aims in education. 

The nature of “the good life” will be considered first 
from the standpoint of the individual, his interests, his 
manner of growth, and the conditions of his develop- 
ment. The following chapter will then treat the same 
question from the social point of view. The writer will 
not attempt to develop a new philosophy but merely to 
present the principles which are to be used in evaluating 
country life and in making certain proposals for rural 


education and the preparation of rural teachers. 
59 


60 RURAL EDUCATION 


I. NATURE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 


Practical Definition. — What, then, is the good life for 
the individual? And what does his nature demand? 
The practical way of characterizing any man is to point 
out the ends he seeks, the interests he possesses, the 
things he holds valuable, or his method of response to 
certain situations. For it is by the ends or values which 
he strives to realize that amanis known. “If we know,” 
says Dewey, “‘what any person really finds desirable, 
what he stakes his happiness upon, we can read his 
nature. ... A man’s character is revealed by the objects 
which make him happy, whether anticipated or real- 
ized.”’! Our very class names refer to these values. To 
say that a man is a socialist is to imply that he believes in 
certain principles, takes an interest in certain activities, 
seeks certain ends, and, where these particular ends are 
involved, acts in a certain way. Implications of a 
similar nature are inferred if we describe a man as an 
egotist, a Christian, a prize fighter, or an artist. And if 
we were challenged to show that the individual under 
discussion did hold such values and interests, we should 
do so by referring to his actions. In other words, we 
think of his acts as related to his purposes and values, as 
means are related to ends. These purposes make his 
conduct meaningful and are its explanation. His 
actions are in turn evidence that these purposes exist. 
He is a being seeking certain objectives. 

The Individual as Defined by Certain Writers. — This 
progressing character of the individual under the 
guidance of purposes has been definitely pointed out or 


1 Dewey and Tufts — Ethics, pp. 272-3. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 61 


assumed by many writers. Thorndike refers to these 
purposes as ‘“‘wants” and finds in their improvement and 
satisfaction the rational end of living. Kilpatrick makes 
“ourposeful activity” basic in his conception of educa- 
tion. Bagley evidently has the same thing in mind 
when, in answer to the question, ‘‘What is the criterion of 
social progress?”’ he says: “The only rational answer 
to the question is, Achievement. 'That conduct is worthy 
which promotes achievement; that achievement is 
worthy which promotes among all men the possibility of 
further achievement.’’! Paulsen, in a discussion of 
“the highest good,” says of the individual, ‘‘The type 
which his life desires to express and to realize hovers _ 
before him as an ideal. This he strives after, this is the 
standard by which he measures himself and his activity.’’? 
“The means I desire only for the sake of the end; in 
themselves they are totally indifferent; I choose that one 
among them which will help me to realize my purpose 
in the quickest manner possible and at the least ex- 
pense.’’ 

Dewey says that “the proper meaning of happiness 
turns out to be the satisfaction, realization, or fulfillment 
of some purpose and power of the agent.’ He calls the 
tendency of people to seek desired ends by means of the 
environment ‘‘growth.’> ‘‘Where there is life, there are 
already eager and impassioned activities,’ and such 
activities express the essence of life. ‘‘Life is develop- 
ment, and developing, growing, is life.” Such growth, 


1 Bagley, W. C. — Educational Values, p. 114. 

2 Paulsen, Friedrich — System of Ethics, p. 27. 

8 Ibid. — pp. 253-4. 

4 Dewey and Tufts — Ethics, p. 269. 

5 Dewry, John — Democracy and Education, Chapter 4. 


62 RURAL EDUCATION 


however, is not mere random activity but is defined as 
“the cumulative movement of action toward a later 
result.”” It involves ‘‘the constant expansion of horizons 
and the consequent formation of new purposes and new 
responses.”’? We have, then, as a common element to 
all these interpretations of the nature and purpose 
of an individual life the two factors, the end or purpose 
and the activity which is directed toward its attain- 
ment. 

The Individual as Defined in Psychology. — This 
theory that life is mainly a matter of activity which 
satisfies, or of activity directed to ends that seem 
desirable, is expressed in certain interpretations in 
psychology. Thorndike analyzes the individual into 
stimulus-response bonds. That is, he regards life as 
composed of situations that stimulate activity either 
because they produce an annoying state from which one 
would escape, or a prospective end or state whose 
realization will give satisfaction. All activity is thus 
related to some definite cause.! 

But this activity, set off by a definite cause, is not of a 
random nature. Consciously or unconsciously it seems 
to attain some end. This end may be the mere ac- 
tivity itself or it may be some objective result. At 
each step the behavior is checked in terms of the desired 
end, and the consequent satisfyingness or dissatisfying- 
ness serves as a guide to further conduct. Responses, 
then, have not only a definite stimulus but aim to 
secure a definite result whose attainment measures their 
success.” 3 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 12. 
2 Ibid. — pp. 172-3. 


THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 63 


End Predominant. — The predominance of the end in 
this activity of man is illustrated by that aspect of human 
behavior which Thorndike calls ‘multiple response.’ 
Of it he says: 


The details of very many of the forms of original behavior... 
involve varied response to an annoying state of affairs until a certain 
satisfying condition is attained. That is, the situation provokes, not 
one fixed response, but any one of several responses, the failure on 
the part of the one first made to produce a satisfying state of affairs 
being (in connection with the rest of the situation) the stimulus to 
one of the other responses, so that the animal does many things and 
does them over and over again until some one of them, or some 
external event, puts an end to the annoying state of affairs or brings 
the requisite satisfaction. 


The term plasticity, if it means anything more than 
‘“‘multiple response,’’ refers to the fact that the ability of 
an individual to use one of these responses in preference 
to another is not permanently fixed. Not only does the 
individual possess the power of making varied responses 
to an unsatisfactory situation but, one response having 
failed, nature has provided him with easy recourse to 
others. The individual is prepared by these varied 
reactions to attain the desired end or state of affairs and 
the success of the responses which the situation sets up is 
judged in relation to thisend. He is thus able to persist 
successfully in seeking what is valuable to him in the 
midst of a changed environment. 

For Woodworth the individual consists of ‘‘drive’”’ and 
‘“‘mechanism.”’ He says, “Once the point of view of a 
dynamic psychology is gained, two general problems 
come into sight, which may be named the problem of 
‘mechanism’ and the problem of ‘drive.’ One is the 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 133. 


64 RURAL EDUCATION 


problem of how we do a thing, and the other is the 
problem of what induces us to do it.’”? He is not sure 
what these drives may be. They do exist, however. 
They are ‘‘the motives and springs of action in human 
life.’ In some cases “the drive is simply an external 
stimulus and the mechanism simply the whole organism.” 
In other cases ‘what we mean by ‘motive’ is something 
internal.”! This motive, or drive, and the response’ it 
sets up in the mechanism are the two basic elements in 
human nature. Life is activity to ends that serve as a 
guide and a check upon behavior. 

Ends Have a Personal Appeal. — Life is not composed, 
’ however, of activity to just any end, but to ends that 
appeal. These situations which call forth response do 
so because they arouse in the individual a desire, a con- 
sciousness of a state of affairs more satisfying than the 
present. ‘The animal runs because of the tiger and 
because running in that situation is a satisfier to his 
neurones. The child fingers the block because it is 
what it is and because fingering satisfies him.’’? This 
same personal appeal is found in socialized behavior. 
One does not follow custom blindly. “It is true,” says 
Woodworth, ‘‘that beliefs are frequently adopted from 
other persons without much resistance or examination; 
but it is not true that the recipient is purely passive, 
for here again, I believe, we can detect the presence of 
a social motive. We like to agree with the views ex- 
pressed by another person, and especially by a group of 
persons.” ‘There is a sense of comfort and satisfaction 


1 Woodworth, R. 8. — Dynamic Psychology, pp. 36-8. 
2 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 136. 
s Woodworth, R. 8S. — Dynamic Psychology, p. 187. 


THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 65 


in this agreement with others, and in this is to be found 
the explanation of one’s activity. Socialized conduct, 
like all other behavior, expresses, according to Wood- 
worth, an activity to ends that have worth to the indi- 
vidual.! 

These aspects of individual nature and behavior which 
have been considered emphasize the fundamental im- 
portance of something in man’s life that has been called 
by various names; interests, wants, drives, ends, or 
purposes. ‘These terms are not entirely synonymous, 
but they all refer to some objective toward which the 
varied activities of the individual may be directed. 
They may vary from the vague desire of the child to 
escape a state of discontent, or his positive interest in 
manipulation or noise-making, to the definite, clear-cut 
objective of the adult. They vary from the satisfaction 
_ found in exercising some small skill to the pleasure of the 
philosopher’s search for logical consistency and unity. 
They may be as passive as rest after labor or the quiet 
enjoyment of music, or they may involve the activity of 
a football game or the endurance of weeks of body- 
killing toil. Whatever these ends may be, behavior, 
unless it is composed merely of reflex acts or of auto- 
matic habits, will be directed to the realization of some 
end which appeals to the individual as having worth, 
and whose attainment gives satisfaction. Life, as such, 


1 This same basic conception of activity to ends that appeal has been used 
by Thorndike in a criticism of James’s theory of ideo-motor action wherein 
the individual was regarded somewhat as a slave to the passing idea without 
reference to his own experience or purposes. (See Hducational Psychology, 
Vol. I, p. 177.) It ‘“‘serves to correct the false views of the psychology and 
pedagogy of interest, especially the view that interest is nothing but the 
attitude of attentiveness and that the educational problem of interest is 
nothing more than that of getting attention to the right objects.” (bid. — 
p. 297,) 


66 RURAL EDUCATION 


is not primarily a state of being. It is a state of action, 
of activity to ends unrealized, an attempt to realize 
something which adds to the present self. Our first 
characteristic of “the good life,’ then, must be the 
opportunity for experiencing such activity to ends that 
appeal. 

The General End of Activity. — These ends have been 
spoken of as many and varied. They are not the same 
for the child as for the adult, for the boy as for the girl, 
for one man as for another. They vary with time and 
with the person. What, then, shall be established in 
“the good life’ as the general end or aim of growth? Is 
there a common, central purpose for all in the light of 
which all things have value? While such general goals 
have been proposed, the modern tendency is to find the 
value of any end, the reason for any activity, within the 
end itself. Paulsen says that the goal at which the will 
of every living creature aims, “is the normal exercise of 
the vital functions which constitute its nature.”! ‘And 
the will of a living being is nothing but a system of im- 
pulses, the exercise of which constitutes the life of the 
species.”’?. Dewey says, ‘‘Our ends are our happiness, 
and not a means to it,’ ? while Thorndike declares in 
answer to this question, that: ‘‘Reason finds the aim 
of human life in the improvement and satisfaction of 
wants. By reducing those to which the nature of things 
and men deny satisfaction, or by increasing those which 
can be fulfilled without injuring the fate of others, man 
makes his wants better. By changing the environment 


1 Paulsen, Friedrich — System of Ethics, p. 270. 
2 Ibid. — p. 271.4 
8’ Dewey and Tufts — Ethics, p. 273. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 67 


into a nature more hospitable to the activities he craves, 
he satisfies them.”’! 

Each ‘‘Want” an End in Itself. — These wants as 
described here are considered good in themselves and 
their satisfaction is declared the real object of living. 
The same position is taken by Woodworth. In speaking 
of the source of the values that inhere in things and 
make one preferable to another he says: 


What is the selective agency? Now the gist of the whole discussion 
is that there is no agency exclusively devoted to selection, no factor 
of selection that is nothing more than that. A tendency toward some 
consummatory reaction acts as a selective agency, but it is at the 
same time a tendency toward a definite end. An interest acts as a 
selective agency, but it is also an interest in some specific thing or 
class of things. A question acts as a selective agency, but a question 
has always a specific content. A context acts as a selective agency, 
but the context means a concrete situation, with characteristics 
peculiar to itself. Selective agencies are many, each of them being a 
special tendency or interest. Selectiveness is a property of any 
tendency or interest and not the property of some one general 
agency existing alongside of the specific tendencies.? 


In answer, then, to the question, What is the general 
end or aim in ‘‘the good life’? these men would say there 
is none. 

The compelling force of all activity according to their 
interpretation, is inherent in the experience, not external 
to it. In other words, it is not located in some far- 
removed or arbitrary standard of values in the light of 
which any particular activity is to be judged as desir- 
able. The effect of this conception is to broaden the 
scope of the ‘‘good”’ — to democratize it. Here the idea 
that all must strive for some ethereal culture and be 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 123. 
2 Woodworth, R. 8. — Dynamic Psychology, p. 126. 


68 RURAL EDUCATION 


judged in the light of it gives way to the belief that men 
may find many kinds of good. There is one good which 
appeals to the child, another to the youth, and still a 
third to the adult. For each the present experience is 
its own excuse for being. There is that which appeals 
to the specialist in various lines, to the business man, 
the engineer, the explorer and the lover of nature; and 
the values that appeal to each of these are as final as 
those that come to us with more prestige from a longer 
association with our ideas of “‘culture.’? Man is from 
this point of view justified in finding his self-expression 
and his satisfaction where he will, whether that be in the 
realms of philosophy and art, or in the world of affairs 
and physical labor. ‘The good life” to him is just this 
activity. Living, itself, is satisfying if such living is a 
progression along lines freely chosen. 

Wants Conditioned. — Do we conclude then that the 
individual is the sole judge of his activities? That the 
good of the passing hour is the only and final good? Are 
there no limitations? Is there no principle of selection? 

There are limitations most assuredly.. Approved wants 
must, first, be consistent with the limits set by nature and 
man; second, they must be in keeping with each one’s in- 
dividual bent; third, they must lead on to new and better 
wants; and fourth, through the experiences they entail, 
they must provide the power essential to the realization 
of future wants. Each of these elements will be taken 
up in turn. 

1. By Social Standards. The first characteristic of 
these desirable ‘‘wants”’ is that they shall be consistent 
with the limits set by nature and by man. The relation 
of the individual to social demands has received long and 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 69 


continued attention. From the initiation rites of savage 
tribes to our present interpretation of education as ‘‘ad- 
justment,” “social efficiency,’ or “‘social control,’’ we 
find serious consideration of this problem of fitting the 
individual into the limits set by social standards. Such 
an adjustment is recognized as one element in the con- 
ception of “the good life’? here presented. For men as 
men have always lived in the midst of, and by means of, 
the social life. It is essential to their fullest satisfaction 
that they find pleasurable activity in seeking and attain- 
ing those ends which coincide with the welfare of others 
and the conditions of the natural world. While each 
end furnishes its own appeal or value, and while an in- 
dividual alone and in a perfectly hospitable world might 
choose without impunity any end which attracted him, 
in actual fact he is limited. Ends do have relative 
values. And the first condition of ‘‘the good life’ is 
that the ends desired must be in keeping with the en- 
vironmental demands. How difficult this adjustment 
may be, we leave for consideration in the following 
chapter. 

2. By the Individual’s Own Nature. The second 
condition of ‘‘the good life” is that these ends for which 
an individual strives shall be in keeping with his own 
nature. The interpretation of the individual as one who 
finds the purpose of living in the satisfaction of ‘‘wants” 
rules out of the problem any arbitrary or external au- 
thority through which a hierarchy of values might be 
established. But for any one individual, possible ends 
do not have equal value. Thorndike’s study of in- 
dividual differences reveals the variation and specializa- 
tion in human ability. Human interests vary as much. 


70 RURAL EDUCATION 


So instead of establishing a realm of common, funda- 
mental values which all should approve and strive for, the 
type of life desirable from the individual’s point of view 
is one in which he may cce into contact with the varied 
possibilities of human experience and be free to choose 
among them at the direction of his own special interests. 

Among the interests thus chosen variations in value 
still exist. Some are major and some are minor; some 
are transient and some permanent. The fact that ‘our 
ends are our happiness and not a means to it,” that 
there is no one selecting agency which gives a predeter- 
mined unity to life, ‘‘does not however imply, as might 
appear at first thought, that the personality is a mere 
collection of tendencies, with no organization and no 
control. Some tendencies and interests are stronger than 
others in the individual, and a well-integrated personality 
is organized about its master motives, these acting as 
selective agencies.’’! Instead of being merely a store- 
house for achieved human culture, a living means of 
perpetuating human attainments in their present form, 
the individual is one who must reévaluate experience 
and rebuild it in terms of his nature. Freedom to choose 
among his varied possibilities, and to vary and recon- 
struct elements must characterize ‘the good life” for the 
individual. The bearing of this upon education is 
stated as follows by Dewey: 

In its contrast with the ideas both of unfolding of latent powers 
from within, and of formation from without, whether by physical 
nature or by cultural products of the past, the ideal of growth results 


in the conception that education is a constant reorganizing or recon- 
structing of experience. 


1 Woodworth, R. S. — Dynamic Psychology, p. 126. 
2 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 89. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 71 


For life, to have its fullest meaning, must find its ex- 
pression in striving for and attaining these personally 
selected ends, organized in keeping with their relative 
worth to the one concerned. 

3. By their Power to Produce New Interests. But, 
since the measure of ‘‘the good life’ is found in the 
abundance of satisfiable wants, the real test of the rela- 
tive worth of the many possible ends it offers lies in their 
interest-bearing value. These interests must be realiz- 
able, they must have a personal appeal, and, in addition, 
they must be productive of future growth. They must 
open up new fields, suggest new ends to be attained and 
provide for the continuation of activity and the possi- 
bility of satisfaction. The end that does this most 
completely for any man is, for that man, other things 
being equal, the end of greatest worth to him. 

Immediate Value not Sufficient. — With this problem 
before us the effect of any single experience upon the 
possibility of a larger, richer future activity becomes all 
important. Its contribution can no longer be measured 
in terms of the attainment of immediate ends, however 
satisfying these may be at the time. What oppor- 
tunity does the activity reveal? And what new types 
of interests and wants does it make available? These 
are the essential questions. That experiences do 
have such bearing upon the future is thus stated by 
Thorndike: 

Ordinarily, then, any situation not only produces full action in 
certain conduction units, but also predisposes other units further on 
in the chain toward or against conduction. . . . In listing the readi- 
nesses and unreadinesses which different situations produce or call 


into play, psychology can at present make little advance beyond 
what any shrewd observer can see for himself once he understands 


72 RURAL EDUCATION 


the general principles. If each behavior-series is thought of as an 
army sending scouts ahead, or as a train whose arrival at one station 
means the sending of signals on before whereby this switch is opened, 
that one closed, and the other left dependent upon the size or speed 
or color of the train .. . enough has been accomplished for our purpose. 
To discover the exact nature of such readinesses is one of the notable 
tasks of the science of human behavior.! 


Such a “leading on” effect, such an opening up of 
neurone connections, will be largely provided for by the 
personal choice or acceptance of the end to be attained. 
This is well given in the following description by Kil- 
patrick. Situations occur wherein the end to be at- 
tained has not been chosen for reasons inherent in the 
problem. The interest may be in something external. 
The returns therefrom in future interests are somewhat 
limited as compared with an activity freely chosen. 
“The steps that in either case actually produced the 
kite (the purpose under consideration) let us call the 
primary responses for that case. ... Additional to the 
primary responses which produced the respective kites, 
there will be yet other responses that accompany the 
kite-making, not so much by way of outward doing as of 
inward thought and feeling. These additional responses 
may be divided into associate and concomitant responses. 
By associate responses we refer to those thoughts which 
are suggested in rather close connection with the primary 
responses and with the materials used and the ends 
sought. By the term concomitant reference is made to 
certain responses yet a little further off from the immedi- 
ate operation of kite-making, which results ultimately 
in attitudes and generalizations.” Such a result is to be 


1 Thorndike, E. L, —- Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 132. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 73 


obtained from a whole-hearted choice or acceptance of the 
end by the one who is held responsible for the activity 
leading to it, In other words, it is only when the end is 
freely chosen or accepted that this rich return to in- 
creased interests can reach the maximum. 

The unified set of whole-heartedness will render available all the 
pertinent connected inner resources. A wealth of marginal responses 
will be ready to come forward at every opportunity. Thoughts will 
be turned over and over, and each step will be connected in many 
ways with other experiences. Alluring leads in various allied direc- 


tions will open before the boy, which only the dominant present 
purpose could suffice to postpone.! 


Application to Education. — This belief in the neces- 
sity of abundant interests, if life is to be rich and satisfy- 
ing, has profoundly affected our theory of education. 
The conception of education primarily as heavy-handed 
social control, confronted with the problem of preserving 
a social heritage from a naturally destructive generation 
of youth, and with the task of re-making youth in keep- 
ing with social values, is being replaced in the minds of 
many. In its place is coming an interpretation of edu- 
cation as a large and positive force for enriching life by 
definitely and consciously encouraging the formation of 
purposes and wants. Out of the emphasis upon the 
child’s activity as the fundamental educative force has 
arisen the belief that ‘“‘activity” itself (and this has 
always included the attainment of ends) is the true 
objective of all education. Dewey says, “‘Since in reality 
there is nothing to which growth is relative save more 
growth, there is nothing to which education is sub- 
ordinate save more education.’”’? Life is to be measured 


1 Reprint, Teachers College Record, September, 1918, pp. 9-11. 
2 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 60. 


74 RURAL EDUCATION 


by the richness of its interests which stimulate the child 
to purposeful activity. With this conception in mind, 
Dewey defines education as growth, and says, ‘‘The 
criterion of the value of school education is the extent 
in which it creates a desire for continued growth and 
supplies means for making the desire effective in fact.’’! 
The same point of view is given more specifically by 
Kilpatrick, who states the purpose as “activity leading 
to further activity.”’ Here we find education definitely 
charged with the responsibility of contributing to the 
richness of the child’s life by increasing his wants, his 
purposes, and his purposeful activity. 

While adjustment to social needs must ever remain 
one of the important factors in the growth situation, 
it is a conditioning factor and in and of itself adds noth- 
ing to the wealth of satisfaction. It does serve to lessen 
the annoyance to the individual and adds to the tran- 
quillity of the social order. If the individual and society 
are seeking a placid existence in a fixed state, then an 
adjusted condition will contribute to that end. But if 
we conceive of the individual as one whose reward for 
living is measured by the richness of satisfactions, by 
continued activity to the attainment of desired ends, 
then we must measure our success more by our ability 
to increase satisfiable wants than by our skill in reducing 
those which must ultimately prove disappointing. We 
must seek open-mindedness in all things, many-sided 
interests and a plasticity which enables one to adjust 
his wants to the conditions at hand and still find satis- 
faction in a varying, changing environment. Search 
for knowledge is not a process of storing up meaningless 


Dewey, John—Democracy and Education, p. 62. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 75 


facts. It is a search for means to desired ends. Any 
program of social progress, if it would consider ‘‘the good 
life’ as here interpreted, must provide carefully for the 
development of the fundamental characteristics upon 
which depends this expansion of life to larger and larger 
satisfactions. 

Satisfaction Dependent upon Attainment. — Indi- 
vidual satisfaction does not follow directly from the 
absence of conflict with society or from the possession 
of abundant and attractive ends. This proper selection 
and rich increase of wants can of themselves add little 
to life. They set the goal and determine the direction 
of effort, but satisfaction, which is the end, is dependent 
upon their attainment. Education consists not only in 
providing a desire for continued growth but in supplying 
the means for making this desire effective. Interest in 
the mastery of skills, interest in the perfection of habits 
of learning, interest in the acquisition of essential knowl- 
edge and in the methods of further research, interest in 
social codperation — all these and many other interests 
in the factors of progress must be developed. Without 
these, other interests must fail of realization. 

Summary. — The good life is conceived, then, as that 
in which the individual possessing abundant interests 
is free to seek the ends that have personal appeal — 
ends that are consistent not only with the limits of a 
natural and social world in which he must live, but also 
with the fundamental interests of his own nature. These 
are to be organized around his master motives and so 
selected as to produce an ever-expanding world of ends 
and activity. This good life must, in addition, provide 
him with the means of attaining these ends. 


76 RURAL EDUCATION 


II. DEMANDS MADE UPON THE ENVIRONMENT 


In this discussion of the characteristics of ‘‘the good 
life’ from its individual aspect, it was impossible to 
avoid touching somewhat upon the consequent demands 
that such a life would make upon the environment. It 
is the purpose here to consider these demands more in 
detail. In general, under what conditions can such a 
life be best realized? What conditions are conducive 
to the proper selection of wants, to the development of 
many and varied interests and to their continued in- 
crease? Under what sort of conditions do men learn 
the economic means of controlling natural and social 
forces and the mastery of available human resources? 
What are the conditions necessary to the progressive 
type of life? 

Conditions Suitable to Progress. — This progressive 
achievement of better and more numerous ends and of 
new and better means of attaining these ends has re- 
sulted, according to some writers, from numerous social 
contacts and free access to the social heritage. Giddings 
says, after his study of the development of human from 
animal life: 


If the conclusions hitherto reached in this work are true, it is 
necessary to believe that association, more extended, more intimate, 
more varied in its phases than the association practiced by inferior 
species, was the chief cause of the mental and moral development, 
and of the anatomical modifications that transformed a sub-human 
species into man.! 


In class discussion on the origin of civilization he has 
further pointed out that the early civilization was an 


1 Giddings, Franklin H. — Principles of Sociology, p. 221. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 77 


“inland sea’ product and that the present civilization 
is closely related to the ocean front where association 
with others is most accessible. And in the conclusion 
of his Principles of Sociology he thus states the 
same condition as the basis of future social progress. 

Instead of these notions (of a self-created individual), a conception 

of man as essentially and naturally social, as created by his social 
relationships and existing as man only by virtue of them, will be the 
starting point of the political theorizing of coming years.! 
In the study of the growth of a child into the attain- 
ments of the modern adult and of membership in our 
complex civilization, Todd comes to the conclusion that 
mind is a social product: 

The mind of the new born child is not a fabula rasa as the empiric 
psychologists were prone to believe. But, in truth, so little is written 
thereon, the ink so pale, the characters so fragmentary, that the 
tabula, for any purposes of life, is little better than some torn and 
faded manuscript unless the characters be brought out, the writing 
completed. What, in the case of the child’s mind, is this bringer-out 
or completer of the writing? Speaking popularly it is experience; 
speaking scientifically it is social heredity. 

In his study of racial differences, Thorndike supports 
the statement of Giddings that the civilization of a group 
and its rate of progress bears a close relation to its oppor- 
tunity for contacts and access to the pooled contribution 
of other peoples. 

Obviously, the habits and knowledge possessed by a race do not 
measure its present original nature. Its habits and knowledge, its 
“civilization” or “culture” are in the main due to the original nature 
of men long dead and have come to it by training. The origination of 
advances in civilization is a measure of ability, but the abilities that 


have originated them have probably been confined to a very few men. 
A race that originated none of them may now possess them all... . 


1 Ibid. — pp. 421-2. 
2 Todd, A. J. — Theories of Social Progress, p. 31. 


78 RURAL EDUCATION 


The civilized races have not remained isolated and have got most of 
their civilization from without. 


Thus the race or individual who can take advantage of 
the contribution of other men, will achieve the greatest 
progress. 

Mind and Originality Are Social Products. — Burgess, 
from his detailed study of the dependence of origination 
upon access to the social heritage, upon the nature of 
the social organization, and upon social stimuli and de- 
mand, states the following as his conclusion: 

The concrete process of human association for the twofold achieve- 
ment of personal and group ends intensifies the socialization and 
results in important human achievements. This personal participa- 
tion of the person in the life of the group is the means by which the 
individual secures for himself the heritage of the past and is fitted for 
a part in the codperative achievement of further advance. Socializa- 
tion, then, in this aspect of social environment furnishing the strong- 
est possible stimuli for action, has a determining influence over the 
course of invention.? 

Dewey expresses his conception of the nature of indi- 
vidual growth as follows: 

Every individual has grown up, and always must grow up in a 
social medium. His responses grow intelligent, or gain meaning, 
simply because he lives and acts in a medium of accepted meanings 
and values. Through social intercourse, through sharing in the 
activities embodying beliefs, he gradually acquires a mind of his own. 

The self achieves mind in the degree in which knowledge of 
things is incarnate in the life about him; the self is not a separate 
mind building up knowledge anew on its own account. 

In these quotations stress is put upon free and abun- 
dant association, especially the mingling of groups with 
different ideas so that each may profit from the specific 
progress of the other. ‘Todd emphasizes the importance 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. III, p. 2238. 
2 Burgess, E. W. — The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution, p. 58. 
3’ Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 344. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 79 


of a rich social heritage as a means of development for 
the child. Burgess finds individual growth closely 
correlated with access to the tools of research and prog- 
ress, and closely dependent upon an environment in 
which differences are encouraged and rewarded. Inti- 
mate association with people in an environment sur- 
charged with meaningful experience is Dewey’s basic 
demand for individual development. How do these 
suggestions, concerning the nature of an environment 
fruitful for growth, relate to ‘‘the good life’ we would 
realize? 

Socialized Environment as a Basis for Social Adjust- 
ment. — The individual must adjust himself to social 
values, and learn to select socially approved ends. What 
bearing has the foregoing upon this problem? We know 
that in large measure the ends one seeks are products of 
his environment. The ideals he holds no less than the 
clothes he wears or the language he speaks reflect the 
mores of his group. Specialized ends, ends in keeping 
with the welfare of others, are likewise a matter of experi- 
ence. We must thoroughly familiarize a man with the 
interests of others if we would have him respect these 
interests. We must create an environment in which 
sympathy and respect for the rights of others find expres- 
sion. We must provide for him a multitude of varied 
social contacts so that through the common experiences 
entailed he may adjust his ends to his enlarged concep- 
tion of values. It is through such experiences that a 
permanent, intelligent, and profitable socialized self will 
be created. 


The fundamental means of control is not personal but intellectual. 
It is not “‘moral” in the sense that a person is moved by direct 


80 RURAL EDUCATION 


personal appeal from others, important as is this method at critical 
junctures. It consists in habits of understanding, which are set 
up by using objects in correspondence with others, whether by way 
of codperation and assistance or rivalry and competition. Mind as 
a concrete thing is precisely the power to understand things in 
terms of the use made of them; a socialized mind is the power to 
understand them in terms of the use to which they are turned in 
joint or shared situations. And mind in this sense is the method of 
social control. 


A mind thus evolved in an environment expressing 
socialized values and practices would tend to find the 
demands of society natural and reasonable. Such a 
result is possible in the socialized environment these men 
favor. 

Socialized Environment as a Basis of Continued Ac- 
tivity to Freely Chosen Ends. — The second essential 
condition of “‘the good life’ is that opportunity must be 
provided for activity to ends that appeal. The conditions 
suitable to a rich variety of ends or motives are funda- 
mentally similar to the conditions that will produce so- 
cially approved ends. The individual is a social product. 
The first demand, then, is that he must live in a world 
where many varied interests are expressed and where he 
will come into real experiencing contact with many 
forms of social activity. If these do not exist in his 
immediate environment, he must be brought into con- 
tact with them through artificial means. No child in 
an environment of limited values will create for himself 
numerous and varied ends toward which to strive. 


The influence of any environmental agency, physical or social, 


varies with its avoidability. ... Customs do not make men so 
infallibly if there is a radical party, however small, which offers an 
alternative mode of life. ... Social environments, institutions, 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, pp. 39-40. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 81 


beliefs and modes of behavior are nearly omnipotent when undis- 
puted; for to be the first men to revolt means either that one is a 
mere eccentric and so sure to be a failure, or that one is a genius and 
so very rare. But once the revolt is started and advertised, it may 
much more easily attract those whose original nature it fits. 


This quotation indicates that to insure progress pro- 
vision must be made for all to come into contact with 
different conflicting points of view. Means of escape 
from the limiting mores of a single group must be jeal- 
ously guarded. Variety must be provided. To limit 
a rural child to the narrow and unquestioned customs 
and standards of his local community group is to deny 
him ends for abundant growth. Such an environment 
must be replaced by one expressing and offering the rich 
opportunities of modern civilization. 

Provision for Freedom to Select Ends. — Among 
these many varied interests which a rich environment 
suggests, the individual must be free to select within the 
limits set by natural and social laws, and even to change 
any of these in accordance with his own interpretation 
and interest. The individual is a reconstructing agent, 
the source of the variations that make social progress 
possible. No one is yet able to foretell with certainty 
just what selection of values any individual will make 
in a situation of many opportunities. Predictions may 
be made, but they must not be binding or final. It is 
possible that ninety per cent of a given number of chil- 
dren may choose the vocation of their parents. But 
this can be taken as an indication of their real preference 
only when all other opportunities have been made 
equally available to them. This principle of vocational 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. III, p. 309, 


82 RURAL EDUCATION 


choice is applicable to the entire field of interests. What- 
ever opportunities exist should be made known to all 
with an accompanying freedom of choice. Education 
can serve the child best in this respect by revealing to 
him these many possibilities and by providing for him 
the greatest possible freedom of choice consistent with 
social welfare and his own continued growth. Such 
freedom of choice, such an opportunity for variation, 
and the encouragement needed for such departures are 
characteristics of the type of socialized life proposed 
above. In such an environment there would be not 
only many ends but freedom to vary, encouragement to 
depart into new ways of living, and a social approval 
that would reward each new contribution and individual- 
ized interpretation of life. 

Self-direction Essential. — One must be free not only 
to select his ends but to direct his activity to them. 
Ends are selected not for contemplation but for attain- 
ment, and the situation must permit and encourage the 
use of the resources available to their realization. The 
demand that ends be realized, together with the fact that 
satisfaction is found not alone in the attainment of some 
distant objective but in the mastery of numerous prob- 
lematic situations along the way — in the overcoming 
of difficulties, the control of material, the direction of 
means to ends, or the trying out of new methods — 
indicates the need for freedom throughout the activity.! 
Other things being equal, that life will be most productive 
of satisfaction which provides an environment wherein 
one is free to take advantage of the numberless problems 


1 See Woodworth, R. 8. — Dynamic Psychology, pp. 104 and 201. Thorn- 
dike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 141-4. 





THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 838 


that occur and to direct forces to their realization. This 
desire to exercise intelligence in relation to the many 
problems which arise in the midst of one’s daily activity 
is the substance of the struggle for intellectual freedom. 
With the educated, it is a recognized necessity. Among 
the restless masses who find their lives as automati- 
cally controlled as the machines they operate, it may 
not be an acutely-felt need, but it must become their 
privilege if contentment and satisfaction are to be theirs. 
If men could utilize the numberless opportunities for the 
exercise of judgment and skill in mastering the problems of 
industry instead of being limited in their interests solely 
to a money reward for hours of meaningless toil, some- 
thing would have been accomplished quite in keeping 
with the “rational purpose of human life.” 

Growth Must Continue. — The third condition of the 
good life is that the satisfaction which comes from at- 
taining ends must continue throughout life. The wants 
of the present must be selected not only with reference 
to their social value and personal appeal, but also with 
reference to their promise for the future. The environ- 
ment must favor the selection of those ends and the 
development of those attitudes which are conducive to 
continued growth. The selection of ends that are not 
opposed to social welfare and that have a personal appeal 
is essential to this purpose — ends that are not narrowly 
related or transient in their interests, that lead on to new 
and more appealing wants, and that will arouse the zest 
of living. Opportunity to exercise initiative, to propose 
ends, to direct forces, to master obstacles, and to be free 
to use the environment for the attainment of purposes, 
are other contributing conditions. ‘To develop through 


84 RURAL EDUCATION 


a rich and varied environment many interests, many 
lines of activity, and to have stimulating contacts with 
people of different views, different interests and prob- 
lems, serve also to promote this continued growth. By 
mingling with people a variety of interests is stimu- 
lated,! and the future is consequently not so dependent 
upon the continued attractiveness of a few interests. 
The fruit of such an enriched social life is thus stated by 
Dewey: 

These more numerous and more varied points of contact denote a 
greater diversity of stimuli to which an individual has to respond; they 
consequently put a premium on variation in his action. They secure 
a liberation of powers which remain suppressed as long as the incita- 


tions to action are partial, as they must be in a group which in its 
exclusiveness shuts out many interests.? 


Such a demand for continued variation tends to culti- 
vate the plasticity of early life. Intimate contact with 
numerous and varied points of view encourages open- 
mindedness and an intellectual hospitality to new in- 
terests. On the other hand, constant association with a 
single group and its unquestioned customs tends to 
limit the scope of interest, to foster permanent adjust- 
ment to things as they are, and to encourage reverence 
for the practice of the present and resentment toward 
any suggestion of change. 

Conditions Must Favor the Attainment of Ends. — 
The fourth demand of ‘‘the good life’ is that conditions 
be favorable to the mastery and use of the resources of 
civilization. This characteristic of ‘‘the good life” is 
very inclusive. It implies an environment that will 

1‘ Association was a chief cause of variation and of characterization.” 


Giddings, Franklin H. — Principles of Sociology, p. 203. 
2 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 101. 


THE GOOD LIFE—INDIVIDUAL ASPECT 85 


furnish man access to the resources of civilization in the 
form of libraries and museums, laboratories and ma- 
chines, theaters, schools, and churches. It must supply 
him with the so-called fundamentals of learning, includ- 
ing reading, writing and arithmetic. It must give him 
the knowledge needed in mastering his world and the 
power and habit of increasing it. It must supply him 
with ideals and standards as a guide to development 
and it must develop those attitudes that are basic to 
social membership and to a continued and fruitful 
growth. Burgess’s study of the source of origination 
shows that individuals profit in their personal attain- 
ment and in their contribution to progress by having 
access to the means by which men control affairs. Sci- 
entific apparatus is necessary to much progress in scien- 
tific achievement. Codperative efforts in the form of 
laundries, creameries, and canneries, are efficient means 
of releasing farm women from the overstrain of labor 
and of permitting thereby an expression of the spiritual 
values which they are prepared to contribute. The 
value of a good education, which makes one master of 
the materials of the social heritage included in the cur- 
ricula, has been shown in many ways. Other things 
being equal, individual growth will be determined for 
any person by the degree to which he profits from the 
experiences of others as these are represented in rules for 
living or in the form of social institutions and machines. 

Summary. — The general conclusion, then, as to the 
nature of ‘‘the good life’ from the individual aspect is 
that it is one characterized by activity to preferred ends. 
These must be in keeping with natural and social de- 
mands, they must express the special interests of the 


86 RURAL EDUCATION 


individual, and be organized around his master motives. 
For the attainment of such a life a thoroughly socialized 
environment is desirable. This is one wherein the 
values from which the child is to select, represent a fair 
consideration of the interests of all men. It is one in 
which the individual is not only permitted, but encour- 
aged, to choose the ends that appeal, to seek self-expres- 
sion, and to act freely in using the resources of his en- 
vironment to the attainment of these ends. But in this 
the activity of the present will not thwart future growth. 
Many and varied interests, and open-mindedness to new 
ideas, will be encouraged through stimulating social 
contacts and a wealth of opportunities. A socialized 
environment implies that the varied resources of civiliza- 
tion shall be made available for all so that the maximum 
of individual growth and social contribution may be 
attained by each. In evaluating any plan for human 
betterment, we must test its worth in terms of these 
individual demands. 


CHAPTER V 


THE NATURE OF “THE GOOD LIFE” — 
SOCIAL ASPECT 


THE preceding chapter considered the nature of “the 
good life’’ from the individual aspect. The present 
chapter will consider the same question from the social 
aspect. This in no wise implies that the topic can be 
regarded wholly from either point of view. Separate 
consideration merely serves to emphasize certain aspects 
and to bring certain elements of the complex situation 
into relief. In considering the problem from this angle 
the following questions arise: What is the purpose of 
the social organization? What relation does it have to 
individual interests and welfare? What demands does 
it make upon the individual? What opportunities does 
it offer? What conditions does it impose? What, in 
fact, are the characteristics of the good life, socially 
considered; under what conditions is it best realized; 
and how are these characteristics and conditions related 
to the characteristics and demands of the good life 
presented in the preceding chapter? ! 


I. THE PURPOSE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIETY 


In order to determine the characteristics of the desir- 
able social life, it is necessary first to state the accepted 
1The conception of social life and social organization presented here is 


based upon the principles of democracy as interpreted by Dewey in his 
Democracy and Education. 


87 


88 RURAL EDUCATION 


purpose of social organization. Society is not some 
super-being whose characteristics and purposes are 
independent of the people it includes. It is a form of 
associated living, a codperative attack upon the many 
problems that individuals face. As such it aims at the 
solution of human difficulties. Its purpose is to make 
life more meaningful, more worth while, more satisfying, 
to those who compose it. ‘‘It signifies a society in which 
every person shall be occupied in something which 
makes the lives of others better worth living,” a state 
in which there is equal responsibility for the demands 
of the common life and in which all participate in the 
good on equal terms. 

Society, accepting as its end the largest service to the 
individuals of the group, finds need for an appeal to 
the nature of man to ascertain his interests. The most 
general answer to this inquiry is in terms of self-directed 
“activity to preferred ends,” ‘‘growth,” “progress,” or 
“achievement.” The individual is a vast complex of 
wants or drives seeking expression and satisfaction and 
the life of the individual is found in a continued activity 
directed to the realization of these wants which opens 
up an ever-expanding, increasingly complex, and more 
satisfying field of action. With the purpose of society 
so defined, what, then, are the characteristics of ‘“‘the 
good life’ from this social aspect? And what form of 
associated living is most acceptable? 

Progressiveness. — The first evident characteristic 
of ‘‘the socially good life” is that it must be a progressive, 
changing state. Since each individual is a reconstructing 
agent, building his world in terms of interests yet unde- 
termined and constantly growing and changing, no static 


a 


THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 89 


social order whose ideal forms and institutions are per- 
manently fixed can serve the purpose of a society dedi- 
cated to this fuller realization of human interests. Out 
of these individual interests as they are revealed from 
time to time, will be determined the content, scope, and 
form of this social life. ‘There seems to be no place for 
a fixed or static goal toward whose realization forces 
shall be directed. The purposed end of democracy 
must be an undefined social order. The interests it 
shall include, the forms of social relations developed, the 
detailed ends toward which men may strive, must be 
subject to constant revision as new interests and new 
intelligence dictate. The perfect social state is con- 
ceived as one of progress, a state that is forever changing 
to other forms and other values, wherein the wants of 
the individuals composing it are ever more completely 
realized and more fruitful of further growth. 

Unfixed and Changing Values. — The end being an 
unrealized and unpredictable state, no value or set of 
values is sacred. Some elements, because of their long 
service and close correlation with the general interests 
of men in both the past and the present, are given 
weighty consideration in any suggested change. Others 
less fundamental are given less attention in a conflict. 
Custom and conventional forms are often justified sim- 
ply because they now exist. Opposition to woman 
suffrage is an illustration of the persistence of a custom 
which has become so ingrained that it seems to some 
ordained of God. The economic theory of England, 
which made the welfare of the nation depend upon its 
physical output rather than upon its personal and social 
values, persists to-day in our own industrial circles and 


90 RURAL EDUCATION 


colors most of our thinking. The stigma attached to 
labor and the false bias formerly given to those limited 
social values called “cultural” still function to-day and 
distort our perspective and judgment of relative worth. 
Among primitive peoples, blind custom; among the 
Chinese, parental practices; among the Germans, the 
dictates of the state; to the religious devotee, the sayings 
of his leader; all are accepted as unquestioned and un- 
changing forms and values. But modern democracy 
would criticize all these in the light of the new interests 
of society. No convention or social belief is allowed 
to stand just because it does and has existed. It must 
bear a distinct and vital relation to the progress of the 
whole to secure a place in the values of to-morrow. It 
must justify itself in the light of the new interests devel- 
oped and the new wants revealed in each succeeding 
social group. 

Cooperation Essential. — Since “the good life,’”’ so- 
cially considered, is one of constant readjustment, the 
method of directing the process becomes important. 
How shall such a constant readjustment of the many 
individual values that compose a social group be realized? 
How shall new values be determined? How shall ways 
and means be developed and selected? ‘The purpose of 
society and the nature of the individual both demand 
that such questions be solved through a systematic and 
intelligent codperation of all the individuals concerned. 
Such conclusion is demanded by the following con- 
siderations: | 

1. Individual Interests Are Discovered through Ex- 
perience. The purpose of the social organization is to 
enrich the lives of all its members. But there is no 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 91 


external standard of good. Good is to be determined 
rather by the various interests of men, but individual 
values are unknown and unpredictable. The good social 
order can be satisfied neither with the arbitrary determi- 
nation of the individual’s field of growth solely in accord- 
ance with established social need, nor with a careful 
yet authoritative analysis of the individual’s nature. 
No one can fairly determine the individual’s interests 
and their scope. His wants are so varied, the combi- 
nation of his interests so complicated, their worth so 
fundamental to him, that he must be free to determine 
these things for himself within the limits set by evi- 
dent social values. These wants can be discovered and 
intelligently adjusted to social demands best through a 
free contact with people, access to a rich, suggestive 
environment, and freedom to participate in the varied 
activities. 

2. Social End Is Determined by Interaction. The 
same codperative social life is demanded in order to 
readjust individual values, to re-define social objectives 
and to develop means to social ends. Just as no man is 
free to determine the type of life that must be accepted 
by another, so no man or limited group may determine 
the type of life that all must choose. These general 
social problems can be solved only by the participation 
of all, the presentation of individual interests, the pool- 
ing of individual values and the massing of individual 
contributions. Such a composite of opinion considered 
by all in the light of general social welfare, furnishes the 
most inclusive expression of human interests. 

The new ends to be attained, the new means for attain- 
ing these ends or for a more efficient mastery of old 


92 RURAL EDUCATION 


problems, are products of human intelligence. The 
more completely we stimulate creative thinking among 
all individuals, then, the more abundant will be the 
harvest of suggestions for social progress. 

3. Individual Satisfaction Depends upon Participa- 
tion. This codperative effort of all men in the problems 
of social progress is especially emphasized by the fact 
that people are interested not merely in results but in 
their attainment. All people, from the child to the 
adult, enjoy being a cause. Satisfaction is found not 
only in attaining the large objective but in mastering 
the many problems along the way. It is found further 
in the overcoming of difficulties, in the control of means, 
and in the direction of forces. History supports present- 
day psychology in showing that to have desirable social 
conditions created for a people is not so satisfying nor so 
good a guarantee of progress as to secure results through 
the codperative efforts of all concerned. 

People the Source of Authority. — ‘The good social 
life,” then, repudiating the principle of external author- 
ity, finds a substitute for it in the freedom and responsi- 
bility of individuals to initiate, direct, and control the 
group activity. Instead of trusting mainly to the force 
of organized custom or to the intrenched interests of a 
self-styled superior class, it charges its members to 
initiate improvements, to plot the curve of social progress 
so as to increase the satisfactions of associated living 
and, at the same time, to increase the capacity of in- 
dividuals to act as directive guardians of this organiza- 
tion. For it is out of the new points of view which ap- 
pear, out of new types of association that evolve from 
free interaction, out of new theories that arise, out of 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 93 


new solutions to common problems, that humanity 
recasts in a new and more completely satisfying form 
the objectives and the machinery of the social order. 

Status of the Individual. — But what is the place of 
the individual as an individual in this ‘‘good social life’? 
What deference is shown his wants? What limits are 
placed upon him? How is he related to his fellows? In 
the discussion thus far the criterion of value has been 
attributed successively both to the individual and to the 
group. And both are in a measure true, for the indi- 
vidual 1s both an end and a means. Within the limits set 
by social standards each individual shall be free to seek 
the ends of his own choosing. For him, and for society 
in its relation to him, these ends are of supreme worth. 
Social forces shall aid him in their realization. Society 
serves itself by furthering his interests. His progress, 
his mastery of situations, the fulness of his satisfactions, 
are its goal. But when individuals conflict with each 
other or with the group, another relationship holds. 
The presupposition of the former situation, i.e., that 
one’s activity is socially serviceable, is evidently not true 
in this case. There is here a conflict of values. And to 
this society answers that against the welfare of the 
group no end with limited worth can prevail. An in- 
dividual is subordinate to the group, a small group to 
the large, the minority to the majority. In such a 
conflict of individuals or between an individual and 
society, ends must be evaluated in terms of the larger 
common good. 

In the adjustment of such a conflict between individual 
and individual, or between an individual and the group, 
the individual’s rights and development must be safely 


94 RURAL EDUCATION 


guarded. Social forces are so overwhelming, customs 
so intrenched, the present practices appear to us so good 
that the individual variation tends to be disapproved 
upon general principle. In social control suppression 
or denial of individual freedom is much easier than wise 
direction to ways that are socially approved yet fruitful 
for individual growth. Society is not justified in simply 
prohibiting individual activity. It must by the control 
it exercises secure a larger, though changed develop- 
ment of the one concerned. The majority is not justified 
in demanding that the individual limit himself for the 
attainment of its own selfish ends. To require any one 
to endure for social ends a hardship which others shirk 
is not service but slavery. 

Summary. — ‘‘The good life’ from the social aspect, 
then, is one that is characterized by a state of change 
or progress. Its fundamental purpose is the realization 
of a social order wherein human wants are more com- 
pletely satisfied and a more fruitful growth is made 
possible. The source of worth is found in the interests 
of men. Since these are being continually revealed by 
intelligence and opportunity, social values, institutions 
and forms cannot be permanently established beyond 
question. Each individual, each group, each generation, 
must be free to reconstruct in keeping with its own 
interests. This process of reconstruction is best secured 
through the codperative effort of all concerned. In this 
way the interests and demands of all will find expression, 
and fundamental human values will be discovered. In 
the good social life each individual is considered as an 
end. Society aims to enrich his life in terms satisfying 
to him. But it demands of him that he, in turn, shall 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 95 


choose or accept such ends for himself as are consistent 
with group welfare. In the authority society exercises 
over the individual, in the adjustment it demands of 
him, it seeks always a richer, though changed and ever- 
expanding development for him. 


II. SOCIAL DEMANDS UPON THE INDIVIDUAL 


Adjustment. — The first demand of the good social 
life as shown above is that there shall be a fundamental 
harmony among the ends sought by the various groups 
and individuals. How varied these ends may profitably 
be is not here in question. They must be sufficiently 


. consistent to encourage a large codperative effort toward 





acommon end. One of the essential conditions of ‘“‘the 
good life’’ in its individual aspects was adjustment to the 
conditions imposed by man and nature. The desirable 
social life emphasizes this characteristic, for man’s life 
must not only not run counter to these social demands, 
but must contribute positively to the common good. 
The ends he seeks must be fruitful to the lives of others. 

What effect do these essential social limitations have 
upon the individual? Is human nature so varied, are 
its parts so inconsistent, that such an adjustment of the 
many tendencies must involve a large sacrifice of indi- 
vidually desired ends? Society is an organized force 
directed to the service of its members. Its ends are 
subject to change; its values are relative; its institutions, 
being means, are flexible and may be readjusted to meet 
the new demands. There would seem then to be no 
fundamental conflict between the values of an individual, 
his purposes and modes of development, and a society 
which aims to express continually in a more perfect 


96 RURAL EDUCATION 


form the preferred ways of living, especially one that is 
dedicated to the service of each and all on equal terms. 

Adjustment not Unnatural. — That a natural or in- 
nate basis for social harmony exists is the opinion of 
many thinkers. The types of activity essential to such 
a form of codperative living are held to have for the in- 
dividual an instinctive appeal. According to Thorn- 
dike: 

The rich satisfaction of the presence of a single companion consists 
not only in allowing various desirable activities which need a fellow 
man as their stimulus but also in the mere fact that he is there. 


Being one of a crowd adds new instinctive exhilaration, irrespective of 
any particular benefits the situation may be expected to produce.! 


The following quotations express this view, that the 
demands of associated living are not foreign to individual 
nature: 

Altruistic states of mind are, then, as natural as individualistic 
states . . . since both were produced in the common process of 
evolution. 

Human intercourse and institutions are as surely rooted and 
grounded in the original nature as man’s struggles with the rest of 


nature for food and safety. 
Human altruism is a natural instinctive product.4 


Woodworth’ sees this tendency of the individual to 
accord with the interests of others, to find satisfying 
expression in and through the life of the group, as an 
outgrowth of a distinctively social tendency which he 
calls the “‘social motive.’ He says: 

We like to agree with the views expressed by another person, and 
especially by a group of persons. There is a sense of comfort and 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 86. 

2 Ellwood, C. A. — Sociology in its Psychological Aspect, p. 121. 
3 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. I, p. 81. 

* Pearson, Karl — The Chances of Death, Vol. I, pp. 103-139. 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 97 


satisfaction in thus agreeing... . If they (two new acquaintances) 
find themselves in agreement, they experience a satisfaction that is 
quite exhilarating. People with the same view gravitate together, 
and a group of like-thinking persons is eminently satisfactory to its 
members.! 

Man is not an individual being seeking always his own 
personal ends. He has a liking for agreement with 
his fellows in belief, emotion, purpose, and action. 
There is an “individual drive toward sociability.” 
‘There is an impulse to act together as well as to be 
together.”’ Possessing the capacity for group activity 
as he does to an eminent degree, man is thoroughly 
interested in such activity. He needs no ulterior motive 
to attract him to it. Such a blending of interests or 
ends is a very normal human characteristic. It is em- 
phasized by Cooley in the following: 

If I come to imagine a person suffering wrong it is not “altruism” 
that makes me wish to right that wrong, but simple human impulse. 
He is my life, as really and immediately as anything else. His 
symbol arouses a sentiment which is no more his than mine.? 
Concerning this harmony of individual and social ends 
Dewey remarks that: 


Any individual has missed his calling, farmer, physician, teacher, 
student, who does not find that the accomplishment of results of 
value to others is an accompaniment of a process of experience 
inherently worth while.’ 

Speaking of the individual as one seeking ends that 
have a personal appeal, does not imply that their value 
is thereby limited to him. Ends may be intensely satis- 
fying and yet be wholly unselfish in the sense of being 
primarily serviceable to others. 


1 Woodworth, R. S. — Dynamic Psychology, pp. 187-188. 
2 Cooley, C. H. — Human Nature and the Social Order, p. 115. 
® Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 1438. 


98 RURAL EDUCATION 


Growth a Social Product. — The tendency in modern 
thinking is not only to hold that the individual’s original 
tendencies supply these socializing drives, instincts, or 
capacities, but that in the process of his later develop- 
ment he is at every stage, in large measure, a social 
product. 


We do not need to grub around for some special or recondite 
“social instinct,” ‘‘altruistic impulse” or “group faculty,” either 
inherited or injected. The principle lies implicit in man and his 
development. He cannot become man, a human individual, without 
at the same time becoming incorporated beyond recall and almost 
beyond analysis into the mental whole which constitutes society, for 
the social bond is established and rooted in the development of self- 
consciousness itself. 


Unique capacities and individual differences charac- 
terize him. His ‘major drives” and his combination 
of interests give him distinctiveness. But these deter- 
mine the lines of interest, of expression, of growth and 
not the use to which his ability shall be put. ‘Man 
as he stands to-day is far more truly the result of com- 
munion, codperation, common interests than of opposi- 
tion, warfare, or competition.” ? 

Social Adjustment Difficult. — This adjustment to 
social standards may not be foreign to man’s nature, yet 
as a social task, the problem is complicated. The in- 
terests to be blended in our modern social planning are 
so numerous and varied, the groups are so widely sepa- 
rated physically, conditions are so different and breed so 
many antagonisms, and it is so hard for men to know and 
understand each other, that what is a simple matter in in- 
dividual growth becomes a major task for social effort. 


1Todd, A. J. — Theories of Social Progress, pp. 44-6. 
2 Ibid. — p. 41. 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 99 


Many differences appear between the desires and 
tendencies of an individual or a group and the values 
and standards acceptable to society as a whole. These 
may range from the mild to the bitter or from the minor 
disturbances and conflicts of one’s daily experience to 
those of war and criminality. Such differences are due 
occasionally to the presence of social degeneracy, as when 
an individual lacks those human characteristics which 
make it possible for him to live in a world of commonly 
accepted social values. For such a one the social in- 
stincts and social motive may be wanting, and for him 
there is no possible social membership. The major 
cause will be found, however, in the isolation of the 
individual or group or nation from the large funda- 
mental interests of world society. Such a narrowing or 
limiting of the social perspective must inevitably pro- 
hibit an appreciation of the values that the social world 
has come to approve. Under such conditions group and 
individual characteristics are determined by the sur- 
rounding environment. If the child of wealthy parents 
is isolated from the general group, for example, he can- 
not be expected to react to the interests of others as will 
one who has grown up in a situation where the interests 
of others have been given due consideration as a matter 
of course. These conflicts are due to the limitations of 
social intercourse either on the part of the individual or 
the group, and their cure is to be found not in the pro- 
hibition of all association nor in the denial of the princi- 
ple, but in a larger and more intimate relationship. 

Society must, then, provide the conditions under 
which such a harmony of interest and effort can be 
secured. What are these conditions? 


100 RURAL EDUCATION 


The basic control resides in the nature of the situations in which 
the young take part. In social situations the young have to refer 
their way of acting to what others are doing and make it fitin. This 
directs their action to a common result, and gives an understanding 
common to the participants.... This common understanding of 
the means and ends of action is the essence of social control. 

In order to harmonize or blend the many varying 
interests of a complex group society must provide condi- 
tions that favor the interaction and codperation of 
peoples through which the desired common understanding 
is developed. Men must come to know, to understand, 
to appreciate each other. This theory more fully prac- 
ticed would overcome the handicaps of our varied and 
complex social life. Men would grow by normal means 
into a broader knowledge and sympathy with other 
groups, and common interests and free interaction 
would tend to secure codperative effort to ends of com- 
mon worth. Only in a society where these many social 
values are a part of his daily experience can an individual 
come to include them in the ends he seeks. 

A Contribution from Each Individual. — The second 
demand of the good social life as here presented is that 
the individual shall contribute to progress. The work- 
ing harmony having been provided for as an essential 
condition of associated living, the next test of social 
worth is its success in realizing new and better ways of 
living. But this progress is an achievement depend- 
ent upon individuals. Therefore society demands that 
each contribute as largely as possible to general social 
progress and human welfare. One may be a good social 
member in a static society merely by living so as to give 
no trouble or disturb the existing order of things in any 

1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 47. 


THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 101 


way. A progressive society, however, demands a posi- 
tive contribution in keeping with ability. 


III. CHARACTERISTICS AND CONDITIONS OF A DESIR- 
ABLE CONTRIBUTION 


Fitness for Task. — Maximum social service is de- 
pendent upon the proper adjustment of the individual 
to his task. While all men are not specialists limited 
by nature to one particular type of work, most are 
happier and produce more effectively in work for which 
they are adapted. In general that social life is best 
which has its members at work upon tasks suited to 
their unique abilities. The following quotations from 
Dewey are given at some length because they state this 
position very clearly. Concerning the individual’s rela- 
tion to such an arrangement of affairs he says: 

Sentimentally, it may seem harsh to say that the greatest evil of 
the present régime is not found in poverty and in the suffering which 
it entails, but in the fact that so many persons have callings which 


make no appeal to them, and are pursued simply for the money 
reward that accrues.! 


In another place he says: 


To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an opportunity 
to do it is the key to happiness. Nothing is more tragic than failure 
to discover one’s true business in life, or to find that one has drifted 
or been forced by circumstances into an uncongenial calling.? 


And in regard to the social profit from such a free choice 
of activity he adds: 
With reference to other members of a community, this adequacy 


of action signifies, of course, that they are getting the best service 
the person can render. It is generally believed ... that slave labor 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, pv. 370. 
2 Ibid, — p. 360. 


102 RURAL EDUCATION 


was ultimately wasteful even from the purely economic point of 
view — that there was not sufficient stimulus to direct the energies 
of slaves, and that there was consequent wastage. Moreover, 
since slaves were confined to certain prescribed callings, much talent 
must have remained unavailable to the community, and hence there 
was a dead loss. Slavery only illustrates on an obvious scale what 
happens in some degree whenever an individual does not find himself 
in his work. 


Chance for Self-discovery. — But the wise choice of 
vocation is dependent upon conditions favorable to self- 
discovery. Man must come into contact with the 
varied means of human expression in order to discover 
what type of service will be most satisfying to him and 
most helpful to others. He must, moreover, be free to 
choose among them. ‘The essence of the demand for 
freedom,”’ says Dewey, “‘is the need of conditions which 
will enable an individual to make his own special con- 
tribution to a group interest.” 2 In such a situation 
where the various types of self-expression are revealed 
to him, where he is directed in a study of these various 
demands and opportunities, and where he is free to 
choose among them in accordance with his interests and 
ability, society will not only realize the most efficient 
service from each one but will be adding to the satisfac- 
tions of each and minimizing the problem of social 
control. 

Varied Service. — While man may serve best in a 
chosen vocation, it should in no sense limit the measure 
of his contribution. The complex social values of to-day 
have grown far beyond the contemplated simplicity of 
the social order of Plato where each man served in one 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, pp. 360-1. 
2 Ibid. — p. 352. 








THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 103 


limited field. Moreover each individual is a veritable 
mine of possibilities as compared with the single-cyl- 
indered being of that theoretical society. For every 
person is a center through which many lines of in- 
terest pass, each in itself quite specialized in the 
social order of to-day, and his life and service depend 
upon his being cognizant of these and responsive to them 
all. He is a man of business and of leisure activities. 
He has friends and companions from different walks of 
life through whom and with whom he must work out 
the social order in which he is going to live. His con- 
tributions are as many and as varied as his contacts and 
must be measured in as many ways. Man should be 
intelligently effective along many lines. 

It must be borne in mind that ultimately social efficiency means 
neither more nor less than capacity to share in a give and take of 
experience. It covers all that makes one’s own experience more 
worth while to others, and all that enables one to participate more 
richly in the worth-while experiences of others. Ability to produce 
and to enjoy art, capacity for recreation, the significant utilization 


of leisure, are more important elements in it than elements con- 
ventionally associated oftentimes with citizenship.! 


This varied service from each individual depends 
upon his developing many interests and many abilities. 
Such a wealth of contribution cannot result unless the 
individual finds in his environment the stimuli to mani- 
fold growth. His life should be flooded with rich sugges- 
tion. Music, art, literature, science, social opportuni- 
ties, industrial problems, recreational facilities would 
serve to stimulate in him a wealth of interest, a breath 
of knowledge, a spirit of participation essential to this 
larger codperation in social progress. 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 141. 


104 RURAL EDUCATION 


Common Responsibility for Drudgery. — Theoreti- 
cally each should serve only in those fields where the 
problems and activities appeal. But actually, in terms 
of social justice, practice must be different. For there 
exist, in the highly organized social system of the present, 
many tasks that fall below the demands of the socialized 
individual here presented. How far these can be re- 
duced in a society guided by proper social principles and 
utilizing the social forces to social ends cannot now be 
predicted. But where there are essential social tasks of 
a routine sort they must be borne in common. Real 
democracy can have no favorites. It does not offer 
to some the fullness of experience and to others a con- 
tinual round of meaningless labor. It purposes to make 
provision for participation in its good by all its members 
upon equal terms, and to give to all equal responsibility 
for the necessary hardships, limitations, and drudgery. 
Service in any field where these limitations exist cannot 
then be held the special task of any ind.vidual or group. 
Nor is the transformation of such a state of affairs into 
conditions where inherent values may be realized the 
sole responsibility of those who chance to be in them. 
The cityward migration of the rural population is a case 
in point. This migratory tendency of farmers is wit- 
nessed with dire misgivings. What shall we do for food? 
All manner of suggestions are advanced to stem the 
tide. But whether rural life can ever be made so satis- 
fying and attractive that men and women, knowing 
all the varied types of service, will freely choose it, is not 
here in question. Permanent or transient as the limita- 
tions may be, who shall bear them? Whatever is done 
must be founded upon the principle that each man has 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 105 


an equal right to the opportunity for a satisfying life 
chosen freely and knowingly and an equal share in re- 
sponsibility for essential limitations and drudgery. 

Initiative and Creative Thinking. — The efficient and 
varied service demanded of the individual by the good 
social life implies more than routine living in accordance 
with established customs. Progress means change, 
change in ends, or means of attaining them. New 
solutions to social problems are dependent upon creative 
thinking. Man must be free not only to choose his 
field of service, but within the field he must be free to 
vary, to propose and attempt new ends. Dewey defines 
such freedom from the individual point of view as 
follows: 

Freedom means essentially the part played by thinking — which 
is personal — in learning: —it means intellectual initiative, inde- 


pendence in observation, judicious invention, foresight of con- 
sequences, and ingenuity of adaptation to them.! 


The environment must not be too permanently and 
firmly fixed. Events must not be so organized in auto- 
matic sequence that change would spell disaster. It 
must be flexible, adjustable, subject to manipulation 
and change as new wants and new purposes dictate. 
It is just this type of environment and opportunity that 
must be given if mprovements are to be realized. Har- 
mony is essential, but without variation life would 
become stagnant. Says Dewey: 

A society based on custom will utilize individual variations only 
up to a limit of conformity with usage; uniformity is the chief ideal 


within each class. A progressive society counts individual variations 
as precious since it finds in them the means of its own growth. 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 352. 
2 Ibid. — p. 357. 


106 RURAL EDUCATION 


Concerning progress in a democracy Todd says: 


Not big populations but sound, efficient, integrated populations 
are potentially progressive. By integration we do not mean uniform- 
ity or dead-levelism; the need is rather for the greatest possible 
variety. Hence sound social policy will foster favorable social 
variations (including a goodly dash of heretics) rather than stereo- 
typed uniformity, and distributed rather than concentrated author- 
ity. 

In a sense it is man’s uniqueness that makes him 
worth while and gives his contribution value. It is this 
at least that adds to the richness of life and from which 
new ends appear, new solutions to old difficulties arise, 
and new ways of combining individual tendencies for the 
profit of all, are found. 

A Critical Intelligence. — The growing social order 
makes large demands upon its people. Social progress 
gives rise to a problematic situation of a complex type. 
The insufficiency of present social customs and institu- 
tions to meet new demands is being continually revealed. 
These established forms of social life, however, are 
weighted with the prestige of long service. New con- 
flicting movements arise giving expression to unrealized 
wants. Some of these are fairly consistent with past 
values; some are extremely at odds with anything we 
have been led to believe is good. Some appear danger- 
ous, some completely bad. Chance has characterized 
the origin of many. The “good social life’ demands 
that intelligence be applied to the initiation and direction 
of progress. 

There is no standard outside of men by which we can 
decide these social questions. In attacking them the 
past has lessons, but even it is deceiving. The present 


1 Todd, A. J. — Theories of Social Progress, pp. 537-8. 





THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 107 


seems good, but it is not necessarily best. Moreover 
the individual must solve his problems not for the pres- 
ent alone but in the light of all possible interests of his 
future. He cannot stop even there, but must include 
the present and future interests of all men if his contribu- 
tion is to be socially accepted and good. Only through 
the intelligent initiative and critical judgment of people 
is this progress secured. 

Continued Growth. — If social progress is to continue, 
if society is to profit largely from its members, continued 
growth must characterize each individual. The social 
income in the way of new ideas, enthusiasm for im- 
provements, keen judgments upon new measures, must 
not be limited to short-term profits. Open-mindedness, 
plasticity, creative thinking, an active and progressive 
spirit, must accompany the individual throughout life if 
his contribution to social welfare is to reach the maxi- 
mum. Flexible readjustment of institutions to new 
values, to better solutions for social questions, is a major 
social problem. People with intrenched interests, con- 
servative and ignorant groups, individuals who have 
dropped to the level of automatic or habitual living, all 
of whom have lost their plasticity, their “power to enter- 
tain hospitably a new idea,” constitute a handicap to 
progress. Continued progress to new and better ways 
of living can be secured when the conditions essential 
to growth are carefully provided throughout life. Op- 
portunity for new interests, to mingle with men of differ- 
ent opinions, to have varied experiences, to be free to 
depart from the established ways in search of new solu- 
tions, all these foster continued growth and continued 
progress. 


108 RURAL EDUCATION 


The Development of Individual Ability. — The attain- 
ment of the demands which the good social life makes 
upon the individual is dependent upon his ability. Social 
ends, like individual ends, are set up to be attained. 
Social progress is to be achieved. The many problems 
_which the individual faces in our complex social life will 

depend for their solution upon whether or not a man has 

been prepared to meet his tasks. The society here 
conceived is more than an adjuster of differences. It 
aims to serve each one upon equal terms and to realize 
a maximum contribution from all. Education that 
alms merely to remove illiteracy, social service that 
proposes merely to satisfy discontent is not sufficient. 
The maximum educational opportunity, the maximum 
provision for individual growth, the maximum oppor- 
tunity to develop new interests, to have access to 
the rich social heritage, and to enjoy the varied ex- 
periences of our complex civilization, always in keeping 
with social justice, must be a condition of the good 
social life. 

Summary of Conditions.— The ‘good social life’ 
makes certain definite demands upon the individual, 
and in order to realize these, certain conditions were 
found essential. This interpretation greatly emphasizes 
the importance of supplying a suitable environment. 
Whatever one’s possibilities may be, he does not advance 
far beyond the status of the world in which he finds 
himself. Ideals, standards, and ways of acting reflect 
existing customs. In great measure sympathies and 
beliefs as well as language and dress show the control 
of one’s immediate group. The growth of the individual 
and his social efficiency in its largest implications demand 


THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 109 


an environment in which practices and values are thor- 
oughly socialized, so that from these he may accept his 
cues for individual expression. Conditions must make 
possible social mingling of the many different groups, 
it must encourage exchange of ideas, a development of 
sympathy, an appreciation of the contributions and 
standards of others, and a codperation for common ends. 
The individual must have access to the many oppor- 
tunities for self-expression and social service, and be free 
to choose among them in keeping with his interests. 
The environment must favor the development of many 
interests so that the individual may be prepared to 
respond constructively to the numerous demands of our 
modern social life and ready to codperate with all groups 
upon the intricate social problems of the day. Progress 
demands creative thinking, variation, and critical judg- 
ment. The environment must offer rich suggestion, 
access to social resources, and control of the tools of 
growth. It must furnish the social stimuli, encourage 
and reward new ideas and new proposals, and provide 
for responsible participation in the direction of events. 
In such a situation the individual tends to grow up so- 
cially minded, to be prepared through the opportunities 
offered to serve society effectively, continuously, and 
variously, and to share with others the common respon- 
sibility of constructing a richer, more inclusive, and 
more satisfying social life. 

The Relation of Individual and Social Demands. — 
The next question has been practically answered in 
various places. What relation exists between the de- 
mands and conditions of the good life from the individual 
aspect and the good life from its social aspect? The 


110 RURAL EDUCATION 


answer is that they are two ways of looking at the same 
problem. 

The nature of the life process has been presented as 
one of continued movement toward desired ends. It 
finds its meaning and reward in striving for and in at- 
taining these objectives. Society is conceived as an 
organization of social forces dedicated to the realization 
of a richer and more satisfying life for all its members. 
Since its purposes and values are meant to attain and 
express the aims and values of the majority of individu- 
als composing it, and since each individual’s aims and 
values are largely the product of the social environment 
and its ideals, customs, and beliefs, there is no funda- 
mental conflict between the two. Whatever charac- 
teristics or conditions are essential to the one, may be 
found vital to the other. Socialization of ends, oppor- 
tunity and freedom to know and choose the preferred 
lines of action, opportunity and freedom to set up new 
ends, to control the forces of the environment to their 
attainment, to vary, to experiment, to exercise the crea- 
tive interest, are elements contributing to individual 
and to social profit. Stimulating social contacts, many 
and varied associates, broad knowledge and sympathy, 
many fundamental interests, a flexible and open mind are 
essential from either the individual or the social point of 
view. The individual, in addition to the conditions of 
growth enumerated above, is dependent for his satisfac- 
tion upon the ability to attain desired ends. He 
demands access to whatever means of mastery man has 
developed and opportunity to learn and to use them. 
And from the social viewpoint is demanded efficiency in 
social service. Whatever can be added to individual 


THE GOOD LIFE—SOCIAL ASPECT 111 


ability in attaining ends is therefore added equally to the 
social income. Whether we view life, then, from its 
personal or its social aspects, growth and progress both 
demand a highly socialized environment, a situation 
where social contacts are many, where interaction 
between groups is free and breeds an open-mindedness, 
a progressive attitude, a vivid imagination, a variety of 
interests, a social consciousness, an environment that 
develops socialized ends, and one where the wealth of 
human achievement representing the pooled intel- 
ligence of the ages is made available for all. Here would 
be found the fullest self-expression, social service, and 
the most profitable social progress. 

With this conception of the characteristics, demands, 
and essential conditions of ‘‘the good life’ in mind, we 
turn now to an analysis of the rural situation to see 
wherein this environment provides opportunities and 
necessary conditions for social progress, and wherein it 
reveals lacks that must be supplied. The advantages 
and handicaps thus revealed will be used later as a basis 
for suggestions concerning the curriculum, method, and 
organization of the rural elementary school and the 
preparation of the rural teacher. 





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PART III 


THE EDUCATIONAL POSSIBILITIES AND NEEDS 
OF THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT 


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CHAPTER VI 


AN ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE AS RELATED TO 
GENERAL SOCIAL PRINCIPLES 


CERTAIN social relations have just been found essential 
to insure the adjustment and progress characteristic of 
“the good life.’ In what measure does the present 
rural situation, in its own group standards and practices, 
in its relations to other groups, and in its contribution 
and participation in social progress meet these demands? 
This is the question for consideration here. 


I. RURAL AND NON-RURAL RELATIONS 


The most fundamental demand of democracy is that 
an individual be treated always as an end and never 
merely as a means. Within the limits set by social 
standards, he shall be treated primarily with reference 
to his own development. Adjustment to social needs 
must be required. Contributions to social welfare and 
progress must be demanded. But he must not be 
required to serve unwillingly where others are not held 
equally responsible, nor to sacrifice himself unduly that 
others may selfishly profit. This generous relationship 
between individuals and between groups is dependent 
upon an intimate knowledge of each other, upon common 
interests, free interaction and exchange of ideas, and 
mutual respect. It does not exist to-day between rural 


and non-rural folk. 
115 


116 RURAL EDUCATION 


Urban Attitude toward Rural Life. — Urban interests 
in rural life have not always considered rural people as 
ends. The efforts of towns to improve farming in the 
surrounding country have been fostered mostly by 
business interests. Bankers and merchants have bought 
registered cattle, horses, and pigs and loaned them free of 
charge to local communities, because they have seen, in 
so doing, a more prosperous farming group, better stock, 
better crops, larger banking accounts, greater security 
for loans, and more trade through increased rural income. 
Such practice is declared good business and justified 
upon this ground.! Where an appreciable amount of 
land in the surrounding country is owned by village folk 
they are found to hold a more definite rural interest. 
Questions of school welfare, better housing, good roads, 
and the like are matters of common concern. Village 
interest under these conditions is necessitated by the 
fact that the farms must attract and hold renters. Self- 
interest in such instances demands that the landowners 
endeavor to construct a satisfying rural life. 

The improvement of roads and facilities for com- 
munication has been greatly furthered by automobile 
associations. But it is claimed that highways have been 
established primarily with reference to distant motoring 
rather than with proper reference to the needs of rural 
populations.2 Good roads have been fostered also by 


1 See ‘‘ The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community,” by C. J. Gal- 
pin, Research Bulletin No. 34, p. 20, Agricultural Experiment Station of the 
University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

2‘*In many letters there is evidence of a feeling that in road building the 
requirements of the automobilists are considered before the business and 
social needs of the farm, and that greater interest in developing automobile 
thoroughfares has resulted in diminishing attention to the improvement of 
short stretches of side roads serving the actual ferms.’’ ‘‘Social and Labor 
Needs of Farm Women,”’ Report No. 103, Dept. of Agriculture, p. 66 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 117 


commercial clubs, because, radiating from cities, they 
encourage a larger rural trade. 

Rural health becomes a question of urban interest 
when rural conditions are seen as a source of danger to the 
city... There arises then a definite attempt on the part of 
urban residents to safeguard water, standardize the milk 
and food supply, and inspect farm barns, home conditions, 
and personal habits. Meanwhile rural health for the sake 
of farmers themselves and as an issue of larger social 
welfare remains relatively untouched by urban effort. 

There is some evidence that rural social needs are not 
fairly considered by the towns, either. City commercial 
clubs and village stores advertise widely and attractively 
to secure the patronage of rural folk and certain progres- 
sive stores, some commercial clubs, the Y.M.C.A., and 
the churches offer welcome and conveniences to the 
rural town-visitor. But notwithstanding these advances 
urban social life has been developed at the expense of the 
rural element of the larger community group and has 
not attempted to serve countrymen in social ways. 
After a careful study of town and country relationships, 
Galpin reaches the following conclusion: 


The problem is one of pleasing the farmer and getting his trade, 
without building him and his mind, capacities, and wishes into the 
community fabric.... In the village they (the farmers) are aliens, 
but aliens with a possible title to be conciliated. The embarrassment 
is on both sides. The farmer pays so much in trade that he feels that 
he ought to have consideration; he pays so little directly toward the 
institutions that the village considers that his rights are not com- 
pelling.... The farmer, therefore, all unconscious to himself, it is 


1 See Publication of the Department of Health of the City of New York, 
No. 3, Jan., 1918, entitled, ‘‘The Rural Origin of Much of the Typhoid Fever 
in Large Cities, and the Need of Reorganizing Rural Public Health Admin- 
istration.” 


118 RURAL EDUCATION 


likely, is supporting a business system which in turn nourishes a 
social situation in the urban center, whereby he is the constant loser 
of the benefits of the social power which his trade economy creates... . 
This seizure of social unearned increment, created by the farmer’s 
trade economy, but made accessible to the farmer’s family only in 
meager amounts, is discovered by our analysis to be one of the 
serious maladjustments which hamper rural society. 


Government Service to Farmers.— The first and 
major effort of the federal government in behalf of 
farmers has been for scientific agriculture and increased 
production. The generous financial provisions of the 
Morril and Smith-Lever acts as realized through the 
establishment of agricultural colleges, experiment sta- 
tions, and extension work, all indicate the attitude of 
government forces on this point and the relative signifi- 
cance attached to the question of larger crop yields. To 
serve the farmer thus in the realm of his immediate need 
and in a way he could readily appreciate may have been 
wise. The time has passed, however, when such 
limited service is satisfying either to the individual 
farmer or to society as a whole. Cheap and long time 
money loans, proper marketing, and the fair sharing of 
the farmer in the consumer’s dollars — in all these fields 
of specific service to the farmer himself, little has been 
done as compared with government activities for 
increased production. But to attack the rural problem 
in this way, primarily for the purpose of safeguarding 
- the national food supply, is inconsistent with the basic 
assumption of this discussion and consequently incon- 
sistent with social justice as here conceived. 

Service to Farm Women. — Government service to 
farm women has centered largely around questions of food 


1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, pp. 93-6. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 119 


conservation and household technique. The following 
statement, in response to a criticism of the assistance 
of the Department of Agriculture to rural women, ac- 
knowledges the limitations of the service rendered: 


Although the department had issued many bulletins and pub- 
lications designed to give farm women practical aid in household 
operations, and to assist them in poultry raising, butter making, gar- 
dening, and other farm activities commonly discharged by women, Mr. 
Poe’s suggestion seemed to merit careful investigation.1 


But the reply advanced from the same source indicates 
an utter lack of appreciation for the fundamental justice 
of the contention supported here as to the larger sphere 
and service of farm women in a democracy: 


The Department of Agriculture certainly wishes to render directly 
to the women of the United States the full aid and service which 
their important place in agricultural production warrants 2 


The results from a questionnaire to rural women con- 
cerning their own needs prompted by this criticism from 
Poe, show how incomplete such service has been as 
judged by rural folk themselves. These replies reveal 
an earnest desire for a fuller, richer life, the realization of 

which might be justly undertaken by a government 
- whose concern was for the people rather than for their 
output in food products. A few statements of these 
needs are quoted: 


Letters from thirty-two states urge that the methods now employed 
to stimulate interest in better agriculture be adapted to a campaign 
for better living conditions. 


1The Economic Needs of Farm Women,” Report No. 106, Dept. of 
Agriculture, p. 3. 

2‘*The Educational Needs of Farm Women,” Report No. 105, Dept. of 
Agriculture, p. 6. 

3 Ibid. — p. 37. 


120 RURAL EDUCATION 


In general, the appeal is for more mental food. The Government 
is asked to provide circulating libraries, or to assist in organizing the 
women so that they can secure them, or to give advice on what to 
read and how to use the library in the neighboring town — in short, 
to aid the farm woman by helping her to find pleasure and enjoy- 
ment apart from her work.! 

Education is the first thing needed; education of every kind. Not 
simply agricultural education, although that has its place; not 
merely the primary training offered by the public schools in arith- 
metic, reading, grammar, etc. I mean the education that unfastens 
doors and opens up vistas; the education that includes travel, college, 
acquaintance with people of culture; the education that makes one 
forget the drudgery of to-day in the hope of to-morrow.? 

The greatest benefit that any government could bestow upon the 
women of rural communities would be to enable them to have a 
diversity of interest, and put them in touch with the world of thought, 
progress, and amusement. 

The lack of variety in country life, the lack of any break in the 
monotonous round, is an important source of dissatisfaction. This is 
especially noticeable in letters from the Middle Western and North- 
western States. Lectures, moving pictures, music — even if this 
has to be supplied in the form of talking machines — all would be 
most welcome. 

The farm woman needs the social phase of life just as much or 
even more than running water and sink in her kitchen.5 


These demands of farm women for a larger life are not 
sporadic instances or passing fancies. They are sup- 
ported generally by the observation of rural experts in 
all parts of the country. Gillette says: 

There are some indications that country life is more nearly stag- 


nant and impoverished in social intercourse than in other directions. 
Stagnation means that, relatively speaking, rural life does not keep 


1‘*'The Educational Needs of Farm Women, ’’Report No. 105, Dept. of 
Agriculture, p. 47. 


2 Ibid. — p. 51. 

3 ‘*Social Needs of Farm Women,” Report No. 103, Dept. of Agriculture, 
DoOLG. 

4 Ibid. — p. 37. 


5 ‘*The Educational Needs of Farm Women,” Report No. 105, Dept. of 
Agriculture, pp. 53-4. 





ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 121 


pace with corresponding grades of life in the city. Social poverty 
involves the thought that the country is really backward in view of 
the demands and ideals of modern life. Deficiencies in intellectual 
stimulus and outlook, amusement and recreation, associational and 
institutional agencies, and in education deserve extended considera- 
tion.! 


The American Country Life Association has recognized 
these needs and is facing their solution. Concerning the 
importance of this type of service Kenyon L. Butterfield 
says: 

I believe firmly that the most thoroughgoing method of attaining 
agricultural prosperity is by setting in motion the great spiritual 
forces — education, codperation, moral ideals; and consequently 
that the problems which we are to discuss here — problems of better 
means of communication in order to banish isolation, fuller develop- 
ment of democratic means of education, wiser provision for health, 
sanitation, recreation, convenience, beauty, proper care of dependents, 


efficient government, and the cherishing of morals and religion, are 
fundamental problems, fundamental in the fullest sense of the word.? 


Yet with all this evident social need and while im- 
measurable funds and efforts have been expended to make 
farmers more efficient producers the first government 
expert has but recently been appointed to undertake the 
solution of the complex questions of rural social life and 
community organization.’ 

Service to Rural Children. — Government service to 
rural youth as fostered by the Department of Agriculture 
through boys’ and girls’ clubs or junior extension work 
again reveals this consistent emphasis on production and 
shows a decided tendency to stress the vocational aspects 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 108. 

2 Quoted from Butterfield’s Address as President of the National Country 
Life Conference. Survey, February 9, 1919, p. 679. 
_ 8 Galpin, Dr. C. J., Specialist in Farm Life Studies, Office of Farm Manage- 
ment, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 


122 RURAL EDUCATION 


of education. According to O. H. Benson, formerly 
government director of this field: 

The future of American agriculture is largely dependent upon the 
boys and girls of to-day, and it is the purpose of the corn-club move- 
ment to assist other forces now at work to interest, instruct, and 
direct the boys and girls of our village and rural communities in the 
possibilities of farming as a profitable and dignified profession. 

Others would make rural children intelligent about 
local industries and develop skill in their tasks. 

The object of forming boys’ and girls’ poultry clubs is to give a 
better knowledge of the value and importance of the poultry industry 
and the marketing of a first class, uniform product; to teach better 
methods of caring for the poultry and eggs, and to show the increased 
revenue to be derived from well bred poultry where proper methods 
of management are pursued.2 

With some increased production becomes a major aim. 
“The boys’ corn-club work is a definite effort by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, the state 
agricultural colleges, and other institutions to promote 
and encourage increased production of corn at a reason- 
able cost on small areas and to offer a plan of vocational 
guidance by requiring club members to master a com- 
plete corn-crop operation.’? ‘To another economic re- 
turn becomes the big objective to be considered. He 
sees the ‘“‘object of such clubs in capitalizing for young 
people their work on the land. There may be other 
valuable results of agricultural clubs. They may teach 
lessons in science, in thrift, in industry. They may 
help to organize country life and provide a needed 


1 Benson, O. H. — Organization and Instruction of Boys’ Corn Club Work. 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Publication No. 803, p. 1. 

2 Lamon, H. A. — “Organization of Boys’ and Girls’ Poultry Clubs,” pp. 
1-2, Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 562. 

* Benson, O. H. — Organization and Instruction of Boys’ Corn Club Work. 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Publication No. 803, p. 1. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 123 


structure for the social moral growth of the countryside. 
But all these are by-products of the main purpose which 
has a direct, economic end in view.! All of these objec- 
tives are desirable in measure. Each should no doubt be 
a part of club activities. But to elevate any of them into 
primary importance and neglect or subordinate the many 
other opportunities for growth far more fundamental and 
fruitful to child development is to sacrifice country 
children to occupational needs or to a limited future. 

In the general national attitude toward rural educa- 
tion this same sacrificial view has prevailed. Education 
has been looked upon as a steadying force, a means of 
preserving the social order, and of teaching men to 
adjust themselves to restricting social demands. 

The eradication of illiteracy, for example, is demanded 
on the theory that the very life and stability of the 
nation is imperiled by an illiterate populace. But there 
is much more to a nation’s responsibilities than this 
steadying of the national boat. Democracy is respon- 
sible for sharing its privileges with all on equal terms. 
It is a force for contributing to individual lives rather 
than for merely serving as a policing power. But with 
this great unmet need crying aloud from the rural field, 
the question of national aid to rural elementary education 
has long awaited action in Washington, and rural people 
considered as people of personal worth deserve a far 
larger and more inclusive service in terms of general 
educational opportunity than they have yet received. 

Attitude of Rural Leaders on the Purpose of Country 
Life. — This tendency to deal with rural people as a 


1Cocheron, Agriculture Clubs in California. Circular No. 190, published 
by the University of California, January, 1918. 


124 RURAL EDUCATION 


means is reflected likewise in the writings of many 
rural leaders. The quotations given in the first chapter 
show a strong tendency to put the farmer’s respon- 
sibilities as a producer of food above his rights as a man. 
The rural elementary school is regarded as a means of 
pre-determining the vocation of rural children and the 
service of the school in farm communities, according to 
some of these leaders, is to be measured by the con- 
tribution it makes to the economic efficiency of the 
farmer. Instead of directing education to the service 
of the child, it is held responsible for supplying cheap 
food for urban dwellers. Some see a need for improving 
rural intelligence, social life, home conveniences and the 
economic situation, not primarily because rural folk have 
a right to better conditions, but because farmers are 
migrating to towns and the food supply of the nation is 
threatened. In the thinking of these same rural leaders, 
club work is permitted to place product above child 
growth and to assume a predominant vocational pur- 
pose. Others again reflect the farmer’s class conscious- 
ness in their desire to build a rural civilization in opposi- 
tion to that of the town. Schools are to be consolidated 
out in the open country away from the contaminating 
influence and lure of the city. Rural recreation, rural 
girls as teachers, a ruralized curriculum, a rural school 
serving the local community — all these are to charac- 
terize the new rural order. The uniqueness of farm 
life is stressed and its independence of the urban group 
desired and sought. 

It seems evident from the foregoing that rural interests » 
and needs are not fairly understood or appreciated by 
non-rural folk. Cheap food has been secured largely at 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 125 


the expense of child labor, long hours, and body-killing 
toil. Limited conveniences, few joys, and little leisure 
have been the woman’s lot. The rural folk have had to 
put up with mediocre doctors, youthful and inefficient 
teachers, and young, poorly-prepared or worn-out 
ministers. Patent medicines, shoddy goods, antiquated 
styles have been pressed upon them. While the con- 
ception which the urban group holds of them and of 
their type of life as reflected in literature, at the theater, 
and in daily conversation shows little appreciation of 
the fundamental rural virtues or sympathy for the 
unusual hardships and limitations of the rural environ- 
ment. Urban people have a tendency to ridicule the 
farmer’s working clothes, his natural friendliness, his 
informality, and his backwardness in conversation and 
social habits, which are all due to very natural conditions 
and causes. Even the word farmer is commonly used as a 
term of ridicule. Gillette says: 

Socially the farmer has not been rated as the equal of city residents. 
He is backward as a social class as measured by class status or social 
rating. This has long been recognized in the caricatures of ‘country 
Rubes” which have appeared in the press and comic papers of the 
nation. He is represented as uncouth and primitive in his dress, as 
slow and stolid like the ox, as a gawk, and as generally inferior to 
city dwellers. He has been caricatured and depicted also in the 


names which have been applied to him, such as ‘‘ Reuben” or ‘‘ Rube,”’ 
“‘hayseed,” “‘spinach,” ‘‘clod-hopper.’’! 


Rural Attitude toward the City. — Social relations are 
no better if we study the rural attitude toward the city. 
Isolation has increased what should have been only the 
normal group differences. Conditions of work and 
living have influenced standards of dress and social 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 105. 


126 RURAL EDUCATION 


customs to such a degree that the country dweller is 
made to feel inferior. He knows little of the affairs of 
city life and is suspicious of change and conservative by 
nature. Social refinement and the advantages of prog- 
ress have given urban people a sense of superiority 
which has fostered an indifference or patronizing 
interest toward rural affairs. ‘‘Farmers in turn,” says 
Butterfield, “‘find it difficult not to resent any approacn 
from urban interests, even those most sincere and 
sympathetic; to be suspicious of some dark plot to 
entrap the unwary; to assume that all city residents re- 
gard country residents as inferior; to be in general unduly 
class conscious.”’?! This suspicion of urban motives is 
well illustrated by the rural interpretation of the recent 
differences over the “Daylight Saving Law.”’ The agri- 
cultural press thus presents the case to its readers: 


Opposing the contention of the farmers, that the continued day- 
light wasting rule meant diminished food production, at a time when 
the whole world is calling for increased production, were arrayed all 
the forces of pleasure, the great bulk of city interests and the larger 
part of the influence of organized labor. It was a farmers’ fight, 
pure and simple, and never has the appeal of any class of workers for 
a fair chance and for decent consideration been subjected to such 
derision, scorn and ridicule as has been poured out upon the tillers of the 
sotl.... Farmers do not shout a great deal about what they are 
going to do, they seldom threaten strikes and as a general thing 
they will be found attending strictly to business on the home fields; 
but hereafter they are not to be fooled by empty words, nor scared by 
threats nor silenced by sneers or taunts; and the sooner those who 
run the government of the United States, as well as the public in 
general, realize this fact, the better it will be for all concerned.? 


Neither do rural folk understand or appreciate the 


interests and practices of city people. They question 


1 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, pp. 220-21. 
2 The Grange Monthly, November, 1919. 





ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 127 


urban standards, both social and moral. Urban night 
life, the pleasure-seeking tendencies of city folk, and 
their Sunday practices are matters from which rural 
children should be jealously guarded. Urban comforts, 
recreation, sanitary practices, home relations, white- 
collared occupations, and desk jobs are all subject to 
question. This attitude is so general as to constitute a 
class consciousness unfavorable to democratic relations. 
There is small chance in such a situation that the farmer 
will assume a tolerant or friendly attitude toward the 
city resident. In fact close observation commonly 
shows that rural people consider themselves justified in* 
taking advantage of urban dwellers whenever possible 
through a misrepresentation of rural products. The 
general conclusion here, however, is that there is pressing 
need for more democratic relations between the urban 
and rural groups so that each in its efforts for social 
progress may be prepared to consider the welfare of 
others as of equal consequence to its own. At present 
the fulness and freedom of rural interaction with other 
groups is greatly impaired, and this constitutes one of 
the basic problems in the educational efforts of a 
democracy. 


II. RURAL STANDARDS AND PRACTICES 


The second demand of a democratic society upon an 
individual or group is that its practices and standards 
must be consistent with the welfare of all. This is only 
another way of stating the first principle. Stated in this 
way, however, it raises certain aspects of the rural life 
situation which need emphasis. This implies on the 
one hand that those who are advantageously placed have 


128 RURAL EDUCATION 


no right to enjoy their privileges without reference to the 
total need. Neither have they a right to neglect the 
extraordinary burdens or handicaps of an unfavored 
group. The advantages and responsibilities of common 
life should be equally shared. On the other hand, 
democracy demands of every group, whether strong or 
weak, favored or disadvantaged, that it attempt to make 
its standards and practices consistent with the highest 
common good. The belief of the writer is that rural 
conditions and practices in general are not in keeping 
with the best social progress. These conditions it is 
held further would be improved by an intelligent bor- 
rowing from other groups, both urban and rural, and by a 
closer coéperation between town and country. Any- 
thing that favors an exchange of ideas, a further mingling 
of peoples, an open-mindedness toward things that are 
new, a united effort of town and country upon large social 
questions, will serve to adjust retarded practices to the 
later social achievements. 

The purpose here in discussing rural standards and 
practices. is not primarily to compare them with urban 
conditions, merely to demonstrate rural inferiority. 
The aim rather is to show the need for rural improvement, 
to reveal some of the major problems, and to indicate 
means for securing more rapid rural progress. 

Rural Social Relations. — A study of rural life reveals 
a fundamental democratic spirit within the rural group. 
Speaking of this spirit, Butterfield says that while social 
differences do exist, and class distinctions are present, 
“the great fact about farmers in this connection is that 
in spite of natural differences and inequalities, there is a 
certain friendliness, common dealing, and mutual under- 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 129 


standing in American farm life that is not duplicated 
anywhere else. In a typical and prosperous farming 
region, say of the Middle West, we get as much democ- 
racy in the social sense as we will ever get anywhere.”’! 
Again he says: “‘It is doubtful if anywhere in the world 
there can be found so large a class of people who feel 
more completely and keenly this fundamental spirit of 
democracy.” ? 

Vogt, discussing the same subject but with particular 
reference to the relation between owner and tenant, 
declares, ‘‘Class consciousness has not yet become 
openly marked as between owners and tenants in rural 
communities.... But so far the distinctions in rural 
groups are based upon the lack of socialization due to 
transient residence in the community rather than to any 
feeling of social superiority on the part of the two 
groups.’ This is evidenced by the freedom with which 
men mingle at the common center for the chance 
exchange of ideas upon topics of current interest, 
in their exchange of work when group effort 1s neces- 
sary, and in their willing help to a stricken family or 
neighbor. It is true that the independence and indi- 
vidualism of farmers tend to make them apparently in- 
different to many cases where attention is needed, but 
when the situation justifies a neighbor’s help in their 
estimation they are considerate and generous to a sur- 
passing degree. 

This freedom of relation between neighbor and neigh- 
bor is found also between employer and employee. ‘‘We 
still find preserved (in agricultural life),”’ says Plunkett, 


1 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, pp. 222-3. 
2 Ibid. — p. 218. 
3 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 97. 


130 RURAL EDUCATION 


“the kindly personal relation between employer and 
employed which contributes both to the pleasantness of 
life and to economic progress and security.”! The large 
per cent of neighbors’ sons among the earlier labor group 
has set the standard for this relationship. Even to-day 
the majority of farm laborers are neighbor boys or men 
who are looking forward to the vocation of farming. Be- 
cause of this and the fact that rural labor must be of a 
high quality,? the ‘hired man” is usually considered a 
member of thefamily. Heeats with the family, associates 
with its friends and neighbors, sleeps in the house, and in 
case of sickness is cared for as a blood relative. Where 
the married man is granted a house of his own these ties 
of friendship still exist. This relationship, it is conceded, 
does not apply to the labor situation of the South, to 
the grain fields of the West, the transient beet-tenders of 
foreign extraction, or any of the numerous forms of 
transient labor-groups, but it is typical of the American 
family farm as run by the family with some outside 
help. 

The Status of Rural Women. — This spirit of democ- 
racy and respect for individual rights is somewhat 
lacking, however, in the farmer’s attitude toward his 
wife and children. A wife is essential in a farm economy 
where the family is the unit.? But though a necessary 
factor in successful farming, her needs have been neg- 
lected. The farmer’s life is constantly enriched by the 
changing problems of the farm activity and his various 


1 Plunkett, H. L. — Rural Life in the United States, p. 137. 

2 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 304: ‘There is no permanent 
class of tenants or hired men in America. Most of the hired men on farms 
are the sons of farmers. They are usually young men who are getting a little 
, money ahead in order that they may become tenants.”’ 

8 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 8. 





ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE | 131 


contacts with neighbors. But his wife’s lot has been one 
of continuous routine and drudgery in relative isolation. 
As long as she could possibly manage her extraordinary 
load, little thought for her relief was advanced. ‘From 
forty-four states,’ according to the Department of 
Agriculture in the report formerly quoted, ‘‘came letters 
in which the writers expressed the belief that the lot of 
the farm women was made unnecessarily hard, because 
men on the farm are thoughtless, uninformed, or stub- 
born about providing measures that will better the con- 
dition of their wives and daughters.”’ Mechanical 
improvements have relieved the farmer greatly and 
changed him from the “hoe farmer’ to the ‘‘machine 
farmer,”! but little attention, and this tardily, has been 
given to making possible for the woman the realization 
of a larger life through reducing her burden and increas- 
ing her opportunities. Gillette presents the case tersely 
in the following statement: 


Letters were sent out to 3,456 farmers in the Northwest, asking 
them several questions. When we tabulated the replies we got some 
startling facts. We found that less than three per cent had modern 
lighting equipment in their homes. Fifty per cent had windmills, 
while ten and a half per cent had water supply in the house. That is 
the difference between the farmers’ cows and their wives.? 


The nature of farm life has made the farmer the source 
of authority and center of his world. 


He considered himself essentially bounden to members of his own 
group by obligations and free from moral obligations to others. The 
son receives no wages from his father for work on the farm and the 


1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, Chap. 11. 
2 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 257. Quoted from an 
address by P. V. Collins, Wisconsin State Journal, October 27, 1911. 


132 RURAL EDUCATION 


daughter did not dream of pay or of an allowance for her labor in the 
house. The land farmer conceived of his estate as belonging to his 
family group and embodied in himself. Therefore he had no wage 
obligations to son or daughter and he felt himself obliged so to 
distribute his property as to care for all the members of his household. 


The husband has thus become the family banker and 
too often in the economic struggle the wife has received 
but little consideration because what she does has had 
no money value. 

Writers representing forty-six states took the position in their 
letters that woman’s work on the farm is not recognized as an 
important factor in farm production and farm profit. ‘Many expressed 
the belief that although the home and farm are really a part of the 


same business the man does not feel that his wife as a worker is 
entitled to a share of the cash secured by the general farm operations.? 


Economy of time in her work through the use of 
machinery makes no increased return. The values from 
her service are in the realm of comforts, education, and 
art. So she has had to depend for her personal, family, 
and household needs upon the little income from butter 
and eggs. 

* Others complain of the fact that they never handle any ready 
money, and are allowed no freedom in purchases, and so are blocked 
from improving the conveniences, sanitation, and aesthetic quality 
of their homes. Several note the fact of the close connection between 
the home and the business, and seem to think that the need for 


money-making or desire for money causes the home end of the farm 
to be slighted in expenditures. 


As a result, the woman’s self-respect and her social 
service and personal growth through leisure time, suf- 


1 Wilson, W. H. — The Evolution of the Country Community, p. 21. 

2‘*Kconomic Needs of Farm Women,’ Report No. 106, Dept. of Agri- 
culture, p. 17. 

3 Ibid. — p. 7. 


SSS oer 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 133 


ficient energy, and social contacts have all been limited. 
Furthermore her highest service to her family through 
the creation of a home environment expressing a refined 
spiritual and social life has had practically no chance for 
realization. 

Status of Rural Children. — The preceding quotation 
from Wilson gives likewise the economic and social status 
of farm children. While this statement was made of a 
period which ended about 1890, in so far as man’s rela- 
tion to the land is concerned, the social customs then 
developed still persist. The incorporation of the 
family as the unit in farm life has shown many far- 
reaching results, both good and bad. It has made wife 
and children partners in the fortunes and problems of the 
farm. Educationally it has had great benefits, though 
it has proved at the same time unquestionably restrict- 
ing. Its worst development finds expression in child 
labor. Because it has not proved glaringly detrimental 
to health and has occurred at home with parents in 
scattered instances, child labor on farms has passed 
unnoticed.1 But recent studies by the Children’s 
Bureau showing that more than a million country 
children are engaged in farm activities to their injury, 
and that the areas of greatest child labor and of illiteracy 
closely coincide, have attracted much attention.2 The 
fact that child help has been an unquestioned custom 


1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, p. 120; Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, 
pp. 9-11; Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 127; Vogt, P. L. — 
Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 192. 

2**Child labor laws do not protect children in agriculture, and while no 
one would be disposed to dispute the wholesomeness of suitable farm life for 
children because of the varied occupations and interests it permits, on the 
other hand, the rural areas where child labor was greatest according to the 
last census were also those showing the greatest illiteracy.’’—Sizth Annual 
Report of the Chief, Children’s Bureau, June, 1918. 


134 RURAL EDUCATION 


among farmers for centuries, however, and that it is 
often the only means of turning the yearly balance from 
debit to credit, has given it a tenacious grip on rural 
practice which will be difficult to loosen.! 

Yet it is clearly apparent that excessive farm labor 
handicaps the child. As long as the opportunities of life 
were limited, social and vocational demands simple, and 
the children most likely to find a future in the rural field 
where their early farm experience would serve them well, 
this apprenticeship had less to condemn it. But con- 
ditions have changed, and the present opportunities and 
responsibilities of the child make new demands. The 
need of education and facilities for securing it have 
greatly increased. Life has become more complex with 
varied offerings. ‘The continued sacrifice of the child’s 
opportunity for a general education to his contribution 
in work is unfair to him and a handicap to society.2 To 
limit his attention to the narrow vocational problems of 
the farm, to sacrifice his growth to the service of the 


1“‘In the life of the country child the terms ‘at home’ and ‘at work’ are 
frequently synonymous. Every farm child has a variety of chores to perform 
around the house and at the barn; this is in addition to the regular field with 
the crops. In the lowlands it was found that two-thirds of the white and 
three-quarters of the negro children from 5 to 15 years old, and in the moun- 
tains nine-tenths of the children, helped in the field, cultivating and har- 
vesting the crops.’’ See Children’s Bureau Publication, No. 33, U. S. 
Department of Labor, entitled Rural Children in Selected Counties of North 
Carolina. 

2 Clapper, E. N. — Farm Work and Schools in Kentucky, National Child 
Labor Committee, Pamphlet 274, pp. 24-29: ‘‘In the case of the white 
children farm work and housework caused almost as many days of absence 
as all the other causes combined. . . . Agricultural work is the chief factor 
in the interference with school attendance and the practice of keeping children 
away from school to work in the fields is winked at by the authorities.” 

Clapper, E. N. — Causes of Absence of Rural Schools in Oklahoma, p. 20: 
“From the totals of all children shown in Table D (table showing progress of 
children in school work) it appears that the farm workers are most retarded, 
51.1% of their number being below normal grade. They are followed by the 
migrants with 41.1%, and then by the houseworkers with 36.7%. Fewer 
than a quarter of the other absentees are retarded.” 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 135 


adult population, to determine for him by limited sug- 
gestion and emphasis the choice of vocation, are practices 
clearly undemocratic. The child must appear in the 
social setting as an individual whose rights are subor- 
dinate to those of no one else. Work which is consistent 
with health and definitely contributory to family wel- 
fare is a possible boon to the rural child and all others. 
But it should be as educative as the task permits; and his 
health, his recreation, his social contacts, his education 
into social membership, his own broad and continued 
growth, must not be sacrificed in order to increase his 
economic return, to serve the family needs, to improve 
the rural community, or to solve adult vocational 
problems. 

Rural Health Conditions. — The general backward- 
ness of rural standards is seen very noticeably in the 
field of sanitary practices. Even a casual survey of the 
provisions for personal cleanliness, care of food, and 
water supply reveals great need. ‘Of ten thousand 
houses surveyed (in Indiana) less than two per cent 
were found to be sanitary under their score system.’’! 
In a survey of typical counties in West Virginia, 
Indiana, Mississippi, and Maryland “less than one-half 
of one per cent of the rural homes had inside toilets. 
In one county seventy-eight per cent of the homes had 
no privies of any kind.”? This neglect of sanitary con- 
ditions and healthful practices has been a great drain 
upon the physical resources of rural folk. Medical 
examinations of rural children reveal disease and physical 
defect greater than those of supposedly less-favored city 


1 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 164. 
t Report of the U. S. Public Health Service, 1915, p. 73. 


136 RURAL EDUCATION 


children. Their comparative status is thus presented by 
Vogt: 


A recent investigation made by a committee of the National 
Education Association included data of the physical condition of 
school children from twenty-five leading cities of the United States, 
1,831 rural districts, representing 294,427 children in Pennsylvania, 
one county in Idaho, two counties in New Jersey, one county in 
Virginia, and one township in Massachusetts. The comparative 
results show that the rural children are at a decided disadvantage in 
many important respects. The following table shows the com- 
parative percentages of defects for all the statistics tabulated, which 
includes all sections of the country mentioned above: 


Per CENT oF CHILDREN SHOWING DEFECTS 


Type of Disease City Rural 
Heart disease reais tee vue Se dea OR ool s Bete .40 14 
Moentalidefécts to0/~) 4.0 pay eo Ue ae ae 45 .80 
Kr ptions sf: gray, seal ee hes Win Race One en am Ops 1.12 
hung disease ni? ae ee ee ke ooh eae .32 1.25 
Ansemia ye fais Le Saiee wah Grae ae Ger 1.65 
Uneleany 22580 0 Caves eee Nera emer ae aia ale liad 
Ski discase 4014 OA gee See ade ee Sra anes ees o.3 
Gurvaturest a2 7k! i6e 20k pete Oe ane aan eis 3.3 
Breathing defects) 163 heat 7 Oe ee eee, 4.2 
Kar-defects 233) i. pibol i at eae Sie ttre a emoeenase 4.78 
Enlarged plands:s 5 <pthcin-scinde even wale eer eee ee OLEL 8.28 
Pedictlosish if. en ST SRR Sa a eee vied SNe Piet 
Exclusions © 8) 25 (eyed hoe ee eee ed ane 11.25 
Waso-pharpnxidefects lorie Late mare ee 15.9 
Malnutrition . PROS ct Path ila atc 2 OED 16.6 
Nasal ’septuni defects. .ye.) oo ne ee eee 20.75 
Kye defacte:t) 2.) 2 Seah een ap ae me aes 21.08 
Adenoids Tee aa Tent Reve ith ee a ete ety id ee 23.4 
Throat défects isn’ domloies pola, 2 ads OE. 26.5 
‘Tonsil defects” a4: Mus) Via ty Poe ere, a pee Tee 28.14 
Teeth defecta sto crag ON iter et anne ha ree 48.8 


This table shows a much larger proportion of the rural children 
defective in the organs of sense and in the nasal and throat passages. 
The much larger proportion of rural children who show malnutrition 
is also significant of diet conditions in the open country.! 


1 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 155. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 137 


The effect of isolation upon rural health conditions is 
also shown by Vogt in commenting upon the situation 
in New York State: 


The fact that almost twice as large a proportion of these living in 
the remote rural districts were ill than of those living in the more 
accessible sections indicates, in the words of the Report, that ‘“‘The 
more remote the rural district, and the greater the difficulty of access, 
the greater is the need of the dissemination of knowledge of measures 
for preserving health.’’} 


The superior progress made by the cities over the 
country in attaining better health conditions is not 
always appreciated. Yet the urban death rate at the 
opening of the century was 22.1, while that of the country 
was 15.2. The rural rate has gradually fallen until in 
1913 it was 12.7, while the urban rate has fallen to 15.0. 
The rural rate has fallen 2.5 points, while that of the 
city has fallen 7.1 points.’ 

When measured in terms of medical service rural life 

is found sadly lacking. Concerning a rural county in 
North Carolina, the Children’s Bureau reports: 
* Although 27 physicians are resident in the county, this is an 
inadequate medical service for a population of 33,719, since it means 
an average of 1249 persons to each physician, which is nearly twice 
the average — 691 — for the United States. Moreover, since 19 of 
the 27 physicians are concentrated at the county seat, and the other 
eight are scattered in small villages and through the rural sections, 
there is a decided lack of available medical service in various parts of 
the county. 

Education and Church Standards. — The backward- 
ness of rural education is so familiar as to need but little 


1 Ibid. — p. 156, quoting from a report on health conditions in New York 
State. 

2 Report based upon data given by Luther Halsey Gulick in Science, May 
27, 1910, Vol. 31, p. 803. 

s Rural Children in Selected ConA ios of N. C., pp. 27-8. Rural Child 
Welfare Series, No. 2, Bureau Publications, No. 33, U. S. Dept. of Labor. 


138 RURAL EDUCATION 


comment here. Suffice it to say that in school term and 
attendance, physicial equipment, teaching personnel, 
supervision, and all else, country people have long 
received and accepted low standards of service.! This 
statement applies with equal force to the rural church 
situation.2 Transient pastors, worn-out or inexperienced 
ministers, infrequent service, and poor accommodations 
have been the quota of country people throughout their 
religious experience. 

Rural Mental Defectiveness. — A comparative study 
of the status of rural and urban mentality reveals in- 
dications of greater rural defect. A recent survey in 
England shows a serious increase of mental defectiveness 
in rural regions over that of urban or industrial centers. 
“The higher rate of amentia... in the agricultural dis- 
tricts in a country which has been passing from an 
agricultural to an industrial stage for a longer period 
than America, is an indication of what may be expected 
in our own country unless adequate control of tendencies 
is instituted.’’? This decline is found in a study made in 
New Hampshire from which Groves quotes as follows: 
“One of the most significant revelations of this table is 
the range of feeble-mindedness, gradually ascending 
from the smallest percentage in the most populous 
counties of the state, to the largest percentage in the two 
remote and thinly populated counties.’ 


1 Monahan, A. P. — Status of Rural Education in U. S., U. S. Bureau of 
Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 8. 

2See Rural Surveys made by the Department of Church and Country Life 
of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 

3 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 172. 

«**Rural Problems of To-day,” p. 76. Quoted from the Report of the New 
Hampshire Children’s Commission made in 1915. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 139 


Rural Morality. — In a statistical study of the ques- 
tion of morality for two counties in Ohio, Vogt makes 
the following conclusion: 

The data show that the village presents in many ways the greatest 
problems in moral life outside the cities. It appears that the larger 
the aggregation of people the more serious the problems of social 
pathology become. Disease, divorce, and delinquency thrive in the 
village. Yet this is but in part true. The type of vice changes. 
The vices of the open country are those of isolation. There are to be 
found sordid, illicit, incestuous relations free from disease only because 
contact with sources of disease has not been possible. 


This would lead us to believe that in morals at least, 
rural people have little to gain by a closer contact with 
village and urban groups. But if we consider the field 
of larger social relations rather than that of vice and 
crime, there is some advantage to be secured. Wilson 
says that “the farmer has perfected the individual 
standards of the pioneer, but he is not yet endowed with 
social standards.... The present state of ethical 
opinion among eastern farmers is not in sympathy with 
the ethical demands of city populations. ... If the milk 
farmers about New York City are to combine they must 
first impose a self-denying ordinance upon their own 
members and furnish the city with a quality of milk in 
harmony with the demands of modern sanitary experts. 
This is an ethical principle not of the pioneer or the 
farmer economy, but of the new husbandry to which very 
few farmers have conformed.”? While it is to be hoped 
that the rural group will preserve its high individual stand- 
ards, the type of social morality and the sense of social 
responsibility which must become the basic element in 


1 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 217. 
2 Wilson, W. H. — Evolution of the Rural Community, pp. 172 and 183. 


140 RURAL EDUCATION 


a stable society, will develop in the country only through 
wider contacts and relations with the urban group in 
whom this codperative living has become more habitual. 

Rural Industriousness.— Undue worth has been 
attached to the industriousness of rural folk. They 
work long hours, have little leisure, and take few vaca- 
tions. But such extreme practices have been over- 
emphasized as virtues, and are commendable only when 
the desired goal is in terms of physical product alone. 
Rural life is more than physical, and its higher needs, 
neglected because of this idealization of work, are 
essential means of growth and satisfaction and neces- 
sary to a larger social contribution. More play for 
children would add to their growth, and less work to 
their schooling. The farmer needs to read, to share in 
community life, and to participate in national movements. 
His wife also needs time to read, to visit the neighbors, 
and to associate with her children in their play and social 
life. In brief, the idealization of work must not lead to a 
sacrifice of other fundamental values. 

Rural Economy. — Another rural social virtue is that 
of economy. Country folk are neither wasteful of time, 
nor given to a luxury that demands a waste of natural 
resources and the products of human effort. Simplicity 
in dress, in home life, in social functions, in food, in 
service, is the common taste. ‘It (the country) is beset 
with less tendency to competition in ostentatious dis- 
play which manifests itself in wasteful expenditures of 
fashion, in riotous feasting and entertaining, and in the 
various forms of conspicuous consumption brought about 
by social rivalry.”! Conservation of resources, in so far 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, pp. 124-5. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 141 


as intelligence can direct, is carefully practiced. But 
such standards of economy are in part really destructive 
of the best social welfare. School and church support, 
home improvements, recreational facilities, medical care, 
leisure time, are all neglected, largely because of a too 
stringent economy. ‘‘A comparison of urban and rural 
modes of living shows that the former is vastly advanced 
beyond the latter. City people of inconsiderable means 
use conveniences which most farming persons would 
regard as luxuries, and as being possible only in cities. 
The explanation of this is found in the traditional and 
narrow view of life which the country man takes.’! 
While the industriousness and economy of country 
people might well be emulated by many others, the 
solution of the rural problem at this point will depend 
upon a less stringent economy and the wiser distribution 
of time over the many possible interests of human life. 
A larger income will help, but money alone is no guar- 
antee of a richer social life. Wants and new interests 
must be attained and new standards established, and 
these depend, as they have always depended, upon a 
larger contact with that part of the population wherein 
they find expression and value. 

Summary of Rural Status. — While the rural situation 
has much to commend it, its civilization is, in many 
respects, below par. Surveys of rural conditions — 
sanitary, social, educational, cultural — indicate a dearth 
compared with city offerings. Rural discontent and 
migration attest this fact, and the attitude of city folk 
toward anything rural, except suburban living or summer 
outings, shows how far country life falls below their 


4 Ibid. h poner Pp. 257. 


142 RURAL EDUCATION 


accustomed standards of leisure, comfort, and satisfac- 
tion. Democracy, however, demands that there shall be 
a sharing of the available good upon equal terms, and a 
common responsibility for bearing the hardships and 
enduring the limitations and drudgeries of the common 
life. If we approach the rural question with the social 
standard in mind these unusual limitations indicate that 
the people of the open country deserve greater considera- 
tion. The rural problem of America is a national 
problem. The unusual handicaps of the rural situation 
demand and justify a united social effort. Educational 
facilities, available medical attention, social satisfactions, 
fair economic returns, reduction of hardships through 
codperative organizations are not difficulties whose 
solution is the sole responsibility of farmers. Food pro- 
duction is an essential occupation, and those who serve 
the nation in that capacity deserve to have their extraor- 
dinary hardships and limitations mitigated by the 
organized effort of the society they serve. On the other 
hand, countrymen are responsible, so far as lies in their 
power, for realizing within the group, standards and 
practices consistent with the best social values. How 
can this best be done? The problem is a serious one and 
complicated by many factors. The answers will have far 
reaching consequences to the rural folk and to society in 
general. 

Solutions Proposed: 1. Developing a Unique Rural 
Civilization. — These differences between rural and 
urban life have given rise to two solutions to the rural 
question. The first, emphasizing rural independence, 
is presented in the words of Carver, who asks, ‘‘Shall 
rural people set their own standards, or shall they 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 143 


continue to imitate city people?” and answers as 
follows: 


But all the organizations and agencies which contribute to the 
social life of rural communities will fall short of their highest pos- 
sibilities unless they make rural life socially self-supporting, and 
independent of the standards and fashions of the city; unless, in 
short, they give to the social life of the country a character and 
dignity of its own, instead of being a bad copy of city life.... The 
domination of the city over the country is, in last analysis, a mental 
or spiritual domination. It will end when country people are able 
to set their own standards, when they stop trying to be city people, 
or to be like city people. When they develop a reasonable pride in 
the fact that they are country people, and in their country dress, 
country habits, country customs.} 


This is also the solution of the ruralist who would, 
according to Galpin, solve the problem as follows: 


The radical ruralist interprets “‘rural codperation”’ as technical 
methods of farmers uniting with farmers to do business collectively in 
competition with urban business; rural schools are schools in the 
country, for the country, by the country; rural churches are farmers’ 
churches, better churches than at present, better built, the flock 
better shepherded, better organized, but still separate and distinct 
from town or city; rural recreation, in the picture of the radical 
ruralist, consists of farm sports, reverting to the barn dance, to the 
type of the husking-bee, the barn-raising, house-warming, spelling 
match, singing school, and neighborhood picnic. Carried to its 
radical conclusion, ruralism would erect a rural society of the mem- 
bers of a single occupation, which should develop its own culture and 
civilization.? 

2. Uniting Town and Country. — Opposed to this solu- 
tion of building a rural civilization out of purely rural 
material we have that offered by Butterfield: 


The door from country to city must swing wide. There must be 
freedom of intercourse between city and country. We must not have 
a peasantry —a rustic group.... How then may we adjust our 
modes of living, our education, our country life, our village life, so 


1 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, p. 370. 
2 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, pp. 62-3. 


144 RURAL EDUCATION 


that we shall secure the advantages of permanent occupation of the 
land without the disadvantages of a caste system?! 


The answer is found in a closer association between 
town and country, a development of a knowledge of 
each other, of common sympathy, of a receptive attitude 
on the part of each for the best that is in either and of 
a willingness to accept and respect the differences where 
these are intelligently arrived at. Chance differences 
are not fundamental or worth preserving. 

It is only in the latter way that ‘‘the good social life’ 
can be realized. Democracy demands that society 
become conscious of itself and plan and direct its activi- 
ties in the light of social welfare. To make this possible, 
provision must be made for an interchange of ideas and 
the free interaction of groups, so that each group may 
know the purposes and values of others and guide itself 
accordingly. The retardation of rural civilization is 
due, in part, to its extraordinary handicaps. But it is 
partly due also to the self-sufficient attitude of rural 
people. City standards have been too much ridiculed as 
superficial and false and the country too long idealized 
as the perfect home of the human race. This concep- 
tion of rural life must be supplanted by one of critical 
study and conscious effort for improvement. The 
present antagonistic attitude toward urban standards 
must give way to an acknowledgment that the city 
typifies a real achievement and a situation full of promise 
for individual growth. While individual morality im- 
proves as we pass to the open country from village and 
urban centers, social consciousness, which is the basis of 


’ 1 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p. 51. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 145 


modern morality, does not. All the other factors con- 
sidered in this discussion, show the need of a larger 
socialization of rural people and of their larger contact 
with modern standards in health, in education, in 
woman’s contribution, in the inherent rights of children, 
in the control of mental defectives, and in all satisfying 
conditions which will attract men of ability. It is to 
this standardization of the conditions of rural civi- 
lization that the social forces of both town and country 
must direct themselves. And the key to this rural 
improvement is the same as that of all progress; namely, 
access to the social heritage and contact with an ever- 
widening social world. 

Instead, then, of building a wall around rural life, 
calling it good, and continuing to drop further and 
further behind by the migration of the capable and the 
gradual mental decadence of the mediocre, the best of 
every social group should be made available for adapta- 
tion to the rural life situation. Our problem is “to 
create a social structure which will enable rural culture 
to keep abreast of the most advanced elements in our 
national civilization, to participate equally in all that we 
are pleased to call progress in American society, and to 
share equally in its costs.”! “But what is wanted, and is 
rapidly coming, is the breaking down of those barriers 
which have so long differentiated country from urban 
life; the extinction of that social ostracism which has 
been the farmer’s fate, the obliteration of that line which 
for many a youth has marked the bounds of opportunity; 
in fact, the creation of a rural society whose advantages, 
rewards, prerogatives, chances for service, means of 


1 Todd, A. J. — Proceedings of the Conference on Social Work, 1917, p. 621. 


146 RURAL EDUCATION 


culture, and pleasures are representative of the best and 
sanest life that the accumulated wisdom of the ages can 
prescribe for mankind.’’! 


Ill RURAL CONTRIBUTION AND PARTICIPATION IN 
PROGRESS 


The third demand of a democratic society upon an 
individual or group is that the individual or group shall 
participate in the affairs of public concern and contribute 
as fully as possible to social progress. What has been 
the contribution of the rural group? How generally have 
farmers participated in social activities? These ques- 
tions are too large to be answered fully, but certain fun- 
damental aspects vital to the problem will be considered. 

Contribution in Food. — Whatever the rural contribu- 
tion has been, it seems in some respects to have been 
imperfectly evaluated. Through their contribution in 
food, farmers serve society in a most fundamental and 
vital way. A study of urban and national effort to 
increase food production shows that city populations are 
not unaware of this service at present. Yet in spite of 
all the social effort directed toward greater crop yields, 
farming is not a dignified and respected vocation, and 
its adherents are not socially respected as a group. 
There are crises, illustrated by the recent war, when 
society is forced to a consideration of the fundamental 
needs of physical existence, and when the farmer is 
regarded as a most essential social element. At such 
times his work is greatly popularized and exalted. So 
far, however, there has been little but verbal respect 


1 Butterfield, K. L. — Chapters in Rural Progress, p. 52. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 147 


shown for the great service of the agriculturalist to 
humanity. 

In Men of Note. — Carver, in trying to estimate the 
opportunity of the farmer for social recognition, made 
a brief study of Who's Who in America, of which 
he says: 


Judging by its pages, either agriculture is not a large field of human 
endeavor, or else there are no markedly successful farmers. Choosing 
those states in which agriculture is commonly supposed to be a large 
field of endeavor, we find in the edition of 1908—9 almost no farmers. 
The number of distinguished persons connected with agriculture and 
allied fields of work is as follows: 

Maine, 1 farmer-manufacturer, 1 horticulturist (at the State 
University). 

Ohio, 1 agricultural educator, 1 agriculturalist. 

Indiana, 1 arboriculturist. 

Illinois, 1 farmer. 

Iowa, 1 forester, 2 horticulturists (both in the State College at 
Ames), 1 breeder, 1 farmer. 

Kansas, 1 stockman, 1 fruit grower. 

Nebraska, 1 agricultural educator, 1 forester, 1 farmer. 

His conclusion from these facts is as follows: ‘This lack of rec- 
ognition of the farmer is not, of course, the fault of the editors of 
Who’s Who. ‘They include in their publication only the names 
which are widely known or talked about. The fact that an emi- 
nently successful farmer is not widely known or talked about is 
due to the fact that our people have no interest in that kind of 
achievement.” ! | 


In Social Virtues. — When tribute is paid to the 
farmer it comes in praise of his conservatism and steady- 
ing influences in times of social stress, and of his indus- 
triousness and willingness to work long hours and give 
himself without stint to his task. His economic habits, 
his few and simple wants, and ‘‘sane” standards of dress 
and entertainment are other virtues extolled. But 


1 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, pp. 375-6. 


148 RURAL EDUCATION 


when these characteristics are considered in relation to a 
progressive, growing, expanding life, rather than to 
social stability or the profit of other groups, they are not 
always seen as unquestioned values and contributions. 
While the farmer’s conservatism steadies the social boat 
in time of storm it acts also as a hindrance to rural 
progress. His industriousness furnishes cheap food, 
but it limits his growth and other social contributions. 
His economic habits and few wants make him content 
with little, but this narrow range of interests and satis- 
factions indicates the meagreness of his life. Wise 
conservatism must characterize all. The steadying 
influence of society must come from a development of 
judgment and stability on the part of all rather than 
from the static conservatism of a single group. Indus- 
triousness economy, and the restriction of wants in 
keeping with social needs must be cultivated by every- 
body. These are virtues when practiced fittingly by 
society asa whole. But in their present proportion they 
limit rural progress and constitute but an incomplete 
expression of its possible social contribution. 
Contribution in Man Powe — Much has been said 
concerning the contribution of rural districts to the 
manpower of the nation. Statistics show a tendency 
toward large families in rural areas and the over-supply 
of farm population has done much to develop our urban 
centers. This rural influx is held to take high rank in 
city life, to furnish the brains, the industriousness and > 
the endurance which keeps urban population from decay. 
But the true relative merit of the rural population in 
cities has never been conclusively determined, and it 
seems scarcely probable that the claims made for the 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 149 


superiority of the individuals from the country can be 
generally sustained. 

Evidence often quoted upon this point is the propor- 
tionate number of rural-born in a group of city men who 
fill positions of responsibility. But a few facts should be 
noted in this connection. First, when the men who now 
hold these positions were born, the country population 
constituted a much higher percentage of the total 
population than is now the case. Moreover “country” 
to many of them means a town smaller than. the one 
wherein they now reside. So interpreted it is not 
surprising to find that most men of present prominence 
were born in such a “rural” environment. Second, it is 
the opinion of students of rural life that the city attracts 
not only those of the most aggressive and active type 
but also the indolent, the shiftless and the day laborer; 
yet the latter are not considered in estimating the total 
product. They are lost in the masses of the city, and 
this upper rural group, representing the best rural prod- 
uct, is compared with an urban group not so highly 
selected. The results of such a comparison might easily 
favor the rural group, yet the final conclusion as to the 
quality of the rural product as a whole could conceivably 
be quite different. 

Some evidence upon this question is found in the 
absence of farmers from positions of leadership in 
national affairs. Gillette observes that: 

In the national governmental affairs it would be difficult to mention 
a member of the farming fraternity in any branch of the government 
who stands out as a real leader.... In state matters the farmers 
have a large membership in the legislatures, though their influence is 


not in proportion to the number of seats they occupy. Too fre- 
quently they simply register votes under the leadership of members of 


150 RURAL EDUCATION 


other classes. In executive and administrative matters they possess 
little power. 


Carver says: 


Almost no farmer has secured, in recent years, any political 
recognition. Even Mr. Roosevelt, with all his enthusiasm for 
rural uplift, consistently preferred the man who talked about farming 
to the man who did the work of farming. His Rural Life Commission, 
for example, was an excellent commission, but it was not made up of 
farmers.? 


Speaking of a more recent experience, Butterfield finds 
that: 


The war also revealed a vacant chair at the nation’s council table 
... the chair of the farmer. .. . Groups of farmers have from time to 
time, and to an increasing extent, been in consultation with respon- 
sible officials of government and their counsel been made effective. 
Nevertheless, the working farmers of America as a class have not 
been represented in any authoritative or adequate way in the groups 
that have outlined policies, nor in the councils that have determined 
destinies, either with respect to agriculture itself, nor in those fields of 
effort in which the farmers as a great class of citizens have a special 
interest.3 


In the most careful studies that have been made on the 
quality of the human product of rural environment we 
find that the country is not contributing its full quota of 
ability. In Ward’s discussion of Odin’s study of the 
eminent men of France, he says, after a comparison of 
eminent authors of urban and rural birth: 


This means that on an average the cities of France have produced 
nearly thirteen times as many eminent authors for the same number 
of inhabitants as the rural districts. The average of the former is 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, pp. 106-7. 
2 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, p. 376. 
8 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, pp. 15-16. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 151 


seventy-seven and of the latter six for all departments per 100,000 
population. ... Fecundity in eminent persons seems, then, to be 
intimately connected with cities. 


In speaking of the contribution of the country to the 
list of eminent women Ward continues: 

In the rural districts and small towns the proportion of women is 
much less than half that of (eminent rural) men, and for the converse 


reason that there are almost no opportunities in these (the rural 
districts) for women to display their talents.? 


In Galton’s list of 96 men who had attained distinction 
in some branch of scientific research only two came from 
a farm environment. In all cases so far given it is the 
place of birth which is considered, irrespective of all 
movements of location during life. ‘The proof would 
obviously be greatly strengthened, “‘says Ward,” if the 
place where men did their chief work were taken instead 
of merely the place of their birth.’’* 

Cattell, in his “Study of American Men of Science,”’ 
comes to the following conclusion: 

Of the 866 men native to the United States, 224 were born in the 
cities which in 1900 had a population of more than 25,000. These 
places had in 1860 a population of about 4,500,000 as compared with a 
rural population of about 27,000,000. The urban population was 
about one-sixth of the rural population and produced more than a 


quarter of the scientific men. The urban birth rate was fifty and the 
rural birth rate was 23.8.4 


What the results would have been had the study 
analyzed the cases into the real rural and urban-born, 


1QOdin, Alfred — ‘‘Genése des Grands Hommes,” given by Ward in his 
Applied Sociology, pp. 187-188. 

2 Ward, L. F. — Applied Sociology, p. 195. 

3 Ibid. — p. 205. 

4 Cattell, J. McKeen, ‘A Statistical Study of American Men of Science,’’ 
Science N. S., Vol. 24, p. 738. 


152 RURAL EDUCATION 


one cannot say, but it is evident that the proportion 
of truly rural-born men of science would have been 
much lower than the rate attributed to them by 
Cattell.! 

Possible Causes. — Just what these facts may mean 
is not certain. The absence of rural folk from positions 
of influence, may result from an indifference on the part 
of urban and government groups, from a general ignoring 
of rural people or from a depreciation of the values and 
contributions of rural life. It may be due, on the other 
hand, to the inactivity and indifference of farmers 
themselves. Or it may be that countrymen are not 
equal to the task of leadership. They have not, in any 
case, succeeded in impressing their standards upon 
society at large nor participated sufficiently in the 
molding and directing of events. The results indicated 
by Ward and Cattell may mean an inferior rural group 
or an inferior rural opportunity. In general, conditions 
in rural regions are unsatisfactory. Standards are low; 
opportunities are limited. But whether the major fault 
lies with the rural or the non-rural group, whether it be 
due seventy-five per cent to heredity and twenty-five per 
cent to environment or vice versa, the situation presents 
an urgent problem for society. We cannot say how 
much of the result found by Odin, Ward, Carver, and 
Cattell is due to lower native ability and, even upon the 
acceptance of his theory, we cannot easily mprove the 
native stock. What we can do, however, is to improve 
the environment in which rural folk live so that it will 
furnish the best possible conditions for growth. 


1The word rural throughout the discussions of this volume means open- 
country. It refers to people living on farms and having rural interests, rural 
tasks, and rural conventions and opportunities. 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 153 


Solutions Proposed: Rural Class Organization. — 
Solutions for this problem vary. Those who are most 
bitter toward urban and governmental neglect propose 
an organization of rural folk to demand their rights from 
others. Here we have the more militant rural groups, 
the ‘“‘Ruralist”’ in philosophy and rural organization, and 
the Non-partisan League in politics. A cry goes out for 
a highly-integrated, class-conscious organization which 
will force its way into public affairs and thus secure a 
hearing at the national council table and a hand in the 
direction of government. 

Developing Urban Appreciation. — Carver would find 
the solution in an education of the non-rural populace 
toward a proper appreciation of rural life. If this 
general respect for farm ng could be developed, it would 
unquestionably do much to strenghten the personnel of 
the rural group and increase its part in social affairs. 
He says: 

So long as men are so constituted as to crave distinction and wide 
public esteem, so long will they tend to avoid an occupation which 
seems to furnish no opportunities in that direction. Until our esteem 
of the farmer ceases to be merely an approval of farming in the 
abstract, and begins to show itself in the form of an appreciation of 
the individual farmer and his particular achievement, we shall not 


accomplish very much in the way of checking the movement of the 
more ambitious youths toward the city. 


Such esteem would keep men of leadership in the 
country and furnish the appreciation and social stimulus 
necessary to their highest development. The present 
political organization known as the “farm bloc’ is an 
indication of the farmer’s belief that this is one way at 
least of securing consideration. 


1Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, pp. 376-7. 


154 RURAL EDUCATION 


Improving Farmers and Their Contribution. — But 
there must be a change in the rural situation itself. The 
farmer habitually thinks of these larger problems as 
unrelated to himself. His attitude in this may have 
been caused by the thoughtless indifference toward his 
social service, but he, nevertheless, is the one who has 
suffered most by this neglect of his contribution. This 
lack of appreciation has given him an irritating social 
skepticism and driven him into a dissatisfying industrial 
isolation. Having small part in affairs, he has been led 
to doubt the justice and sanity of public opinion. 
“Recently,” says Gillette, ‘‘he has been getting a larger 
view of matters, but it cannot be said that he has come 
into the possession of an adequate and comprehensive 
view of his social relatedness so that he is able to make 
use of it.”! The social consciousness of the farmer must 
be increased. 

The farmer should have his proper place in the new democratic 
society. But'let it be understood that farmers cannot take their 
rightful place in national or in world councils unless they make the 
place for themselves. It is far from a mere matter of aggressiveness 
due to powerful group associations or wordy assertions. They must 
have something to contribute. The farmers must make clear to 
themselves what democracy really is, how they can best fit into it, 
what are their relations to the rest of society, what are their particular 


rights and their peculiar duties; they must be able to express all 
these things to themselves and to others.? 


All three of these suggestions will play a part in the 
solution of the rural question. Country folk must 
organize in order to become effective. They must co- 
operate upon their own problems. A proper appreciation 
of farming and farmers by others will help. But this 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 104. 
2 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p. 29. 


— ee 


ANALYSIS OF RURAL LIFE 155 


offers only a partial solution. In chapter four, Giddings 
and Thorndike were quoted as showing that group or 
racial progress depends upon wide associations and free 
opportunity to borrow ideas and improvements from 
others. Burgess shows also that ability to originate is 
dependent upon access to the social heritage, stimulating 
social contacts, and encouragement to progress. Thorn- 
dike further states that: 


Other things being equal, there is a far greater chance of the birth 
of a man of great ability in a tribe of a million than in one of a 
thousand. Since one such man may add to the knowledge and 
improve the habits of the entire group regardless of its size, civiliza- 
tion will progress more rapidly in large than in small groups, in a 
condition of isolation.t 


Rural people are handicapped by isolation, established 
customs, limited resources, and a small group. The 
farmer’s participation and the increase of his contribu- 
tion will therefore depend, in part, upon a more favorable 
environment, larger contacts, and a more intimate 
association with others. 

Summary. — In studying the rural situation in relation 
to the demands of associated living there appears a large 
need for a closer integration of the rural and non-rural 
groups, and for a clearer understanding by each of the 
conditions of life under which the other group lives, the 
tasks it faces, the limitations it endures and the contri- 
butions it has to make. In the relations of the two, 
there is needed a greater mutual respect, a more fair 
consideration of each other’s rights, and an increased 
sense of responsibility for the common tasks and hard- 
ships. Progress for both, and especially for the country, 


1 Thorndike, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Vol. III, p. 223. 


156 RURAL EDUCATION 


is dependent upon a relationship which is conducive to a 
free exchange of ideas and to an intelligent borrowing of 
new and better ways of living and means of attaining 
ends. From this it is evident that the largest service of 
the rural elementary school to country people as a whole 
would be to bring about this wider community of knowl- 
edge and appreciation and this greater activity in social 
affairs. The school must socialize rural-urban relations 
as the basis for rural progress. And to socialize means to 
integrate, not to differentiate. 


CHAPTER VII 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS AS RELATED TO ADULT 
GROWTH AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 


RvRat life is determined to an unusual degree by its 
occupational features. So much of rural experience 
centers around the daily task and is, in general, so 
dependent upon the vocational outlook that this phase 
of the question deserves special consideration in attempt- 
ing to evaluate the rural situation in relation to the 
demands and conditions of ‘‘the good life.”” How closely 
does the agricultural occupation meet demands of 
individual growth and social progress? And what are 
the larger needs in this field in adjusting rural occupa- 
tional life to the accepted standards? 


I. POSSIBILITIES IN AGRICULTURE 


Opportunity for Self-direction. — One’s occupational 
life is but a part of his whole life. As such it must accord 
with the principles of individual growth and effective 
social membership. ‘The first demand that any occupa- 
tion must meet to afforda satisfying life to the individ- 
ual is the opportunity for self-direction. Dewey speaks 
of this type of freedom as meaning ‘‘essentially the part 
played by thinking — which is personal — in learning: 
—it means intellectual initiative, independence in 


observation, judicious invention, foresight of conse- 
157 


158 RURAL EDUCATION 


quences, and ingenuity of adaptation to them.”! Such 
freedom is possible to rural people in large measure. 
This unusual opportunity for the exercise of initiative, 
for the determination of ends and means, and for the 
control of available resources is made possible by the 
nature of rural life and its occupational organization. 
“The typical American farm is a family farm; one of 
such a size that the family does most of the farm work, 
with some hired help. In 1909, only 46% of the farms 
had any hired labor.”? The average size of the farms in 
the United States in 1910 was 138 acres. The majority 
of farm families do the work of the farm, with the aid of 
a little hired help during harvest. Other farmers hire a 
man by the year. A very small percentage hire more 
than two or three men. Even with three men, the farm 
still has the characteristics of the family farm. The 
farmer and his sons work with the men.? He is the 
owner of an independent business whose planning and 
control are subject to his judgment. 

Vogt speaks of the farmer as belonging to the eco- 
nomic group known as the enterprisers, because he is 
responsible for planning his own business and takes the 
risk of success or failure.4 He is largely his own master. 
The work of the day, the week, and the year is his to 
plan and determine. An occupation of this type 
demands resourcefulness. It is not a mechanical act 
with automatic sequence from which any variation will 
spell disaster. It depends rather for its greatest success 
upon exercise of judgment at every stage in the process. 

1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 352. 
2 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 239. 


8 Ibid. — p. 240. 
4 Vogt, P. L. — Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 186. 





RURAL OCCUPATIONS 159 


Concerning the social relations of the farmer, Gillette 
says: | 

Farming is the freest and most independent of the larger callings 
of life.... It means that he (the farmer) is less beholden to the 


immediate actions and attitudes, the beliefs, prejudices, and whims 
of his fellows in carrying on his work than most other workers.1 


This social independence is passing and was in reality 
more characteristic of the self-sufficing farmer of pioneer 
days who produced nearly everything needed by himself 
and his family. As wants multiply and become refined, 
and production is increasingly specialized, the farmer will 
become more and more dependent for success upon his 
willingness and ability to satisfy the demands of others. 
This absorption of the farmer into the commercial 
machine necessitates, also, that he become familiar with 
markets, political and commercial policies, scientific 
discoveries, and economic movements. The.farmer is 
bound primarily by the laws of nature, but as time 
passes he will become more and more entwined by the 
many sinews of social, industrial, commercial, and 
political life. These, fortunately, are all subject to study, 
mastery, and control. They present problems but not 
arbitrary limitations. He is master of his business and is 
free to meet its problems and vicissitudes as intelligence 
directs. If he be a renter instead of an owner, his 
independence may be considerably restricted, but the 
detailed procedure of his year’s work, the investment of 
his time, the marshaling of his forces, the direction of his 
efforts, are still very largely expressions of his own interest 
and judgment. 

The family farm which is the industrial unit in the 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 125. 


160 RURAL EDUCATION 


country, is a family farm in more than size. It is a 
family business, a work in which all may share and plan. 
The value of this is emphasized by Carver. 

The fact that agriculture is still a family industry where the work 
and the home life are not divorced, and where all members of the 
family participate in the common toil for the support of the home, 
gives a natural basis for a type of family life which it is very difficult 
to maintain in the city. ... The typical farmer’s family requires no 
artificial methods to bring its various members together on the basis 
of a common interest.... As a result of this, there are business prob- 
lems, aside from the perennial one of household expenditures, to be 
discussed in the family council, — questions of selling as well as of 
buying, of investing for production as well as buying for consumption. 
All these things add to the strength of the bonds which hold the rural 
family together. 


This situation offers excellent opportunity for family 
codperation on the family problems of the farm. 
Theoretically, the woman of the country should have 
the same freedom in her work that the farmer holds in 
his. In her household cares, in the problems of home 
arrangement, in home management and decoration, and 
in spiritual aspects she should be the mistress of the 
situation. The environment as well as the house offers 
opportunities for conceiving plans, exercising judgment 
and realizing ends. The care of her yard, flowers, garden, 
poultry and in many cases her coéperative share with her 
husband in the direction of the farm work, afford rich 
opportunities for free and varied expression. The many 
scientific aspects of domestic economy, also, offer 
unusual opportunity for ingenuity and planning. The 
farm woman is producer, manufacturer, and consumer. 
The entire cycle is still wholly within her care in many 
instances. These various stages separately and col- 


1 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, p. 21. 





RURAL OCCUPATIONS 161 


lectively challenge her ability to initiate, to think, and to 
judge, and in each there is a large opportunity for self- 
direction and creative activity. 

The community life of the family, wherein all may 
share in the responsibilities of a common problem and 
enjoy the freedom resulting from the independence of 
the family group, is not limited to the family member- 
ship. The democratic spirit of farm life, discussed in 
the preceding chapter, together with the nature of rural 
work, make possible and necessary a large freedom for the 
labor group. The laborer who does not merit respon- 
sibility cannot long remain a member of the agricultural 
labor group. On this Warren says: 


Farm work is individual work. Each worker has to take respon- 
sibility. It is not often possible to give such supervision as can be 
had in a factory, because the number of workers that would be 
employed under one roof in a factory may be scattered over half a 
county. Each worker must be a foreman of his own work, and 
usually the owner must work, because he cannot supervise enough 
workers to justify him in being idle.! 


The disappearance of the immigrant farm laborer, and 
the high quality of present laborers as indicated by their 
progress from laborer to tenant and farmer, all show how 
essential it is for a farm workman to be able to carry 
responsibility, take charge of a situation, and meet 
successfully the problems that arise.2 This suggests, 
moreover, that the employee on the farm is not working 
for a mere money wage. To him its problems are 
interesting. The work bears upon his future and con- 


1 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 12. 
2In 1890 there were 13.1 per cent of the farm laborers foreign born; and 
in 1900 only 8.5 per cent. Year Book, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1910, p. 191. 


162 RURAL EDUCATION 


sequently has meaning, provokes thinking, and suggests 
new problems, vitally motivated to him, because of their 
relation to his personal welfare.! 

Opportunity for the Development of Many Interests.— 
In the second place, individual growth and social progress 
demand the development and continuance of many vital 
interests. As society is now organized, so much of one’s 
time and energy must be put into his work that unless 
the daily task contributes to this breadth of interest and 
utilizes several abilities, there is danger that the worker 
will become limited in his interests and social relations. 
Agriculture is a complex vocation and demands a many- 
sided development. It demands skill and dexterity 
along many lines and the application of intelligence to 
varied problems. It thus makes possible this essential 
characteristic of growth. ‘‘On any ordinary farm there 
are a multitude of operations, widely different in their 
nature, requiring the use of different powers or different 
kinds of skill. ... The work of the farmer, more than 
that of any other class, calls for versatility and resource- 
fulness. He must always be ready to decide what is to 
be done next when these numerous interruptions occur.’’? 
Warren discusses the farmer in his four fundamental 
relations, as business man, as mechanic, as naturalist, 
and as a skilled laborer. Of the personal traits of suc- 
cessful farmers he says, ‘““Good common sense, which is 
another definition for business ability, is the most 
important trait, but the highest profits are made by 
those who combine this ability with experience, scientific 
knowledge of plant and animal production, manual and 


1 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 304. 
2 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, pp. 17-18. 


ed OO EE 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS 163 


mechanical skill, and hard work.’! Butterfield men- 
tions some of the farmer’s problems in more detail, 
listing land purchase, control of capital, control of labor 
supply, buying and selling, improvement of soil, improve- 
ment of crops, improvement of animals, standardization 
of product, transportation, storage, and investment of 
profits.2. In organization the farmer is confronted with 
the farm and its equipment, permanent improvements, 
bookkeeping and accounts, the use of labor, and many 
other questions. A more exhaustive analysis of the prob- 
lems a farmer is called upon to meet would multiply 
this list many times. The present organization of the 
agricultural occupation has been criticized, in this age 
when efficiency is measured in terms of product just 
because it is so complex. No man can master all its 
varied tasks. Whatever limitations such a form of 
occupational life may possess in terms of product, 
however, it is, because of this very nature, a mine of 
opportunity for individual growth. The absence of 
high specialization makes for an all-round development 
and a many-sided interest essential to growth and social 
service. 

Opportunity for Self-expression.—It is a charac- 
teristic of human nature that all men are not interested 
in the same thing. In order to be most satisfying one’s 
occupation must provide an opportunity for specializa- 
tion of interest and self-expression. All farmers will not 
be interested primarily in the same aspect of their work. 
One may find his greatest satisfaction in a breed of 
chickens, another in his hogs, or cows, or horses. One 


1 Warren, G. F. — Farm Management, p. 14. 
? Butterfield, K. L.— The Farmer and the New Day. 


164 RURAL EDUCATION 


may prefer the problems of the field, while another has 
particular interest in the business aspects of his work. 
The complex and varied nature of farming thus makes it 
possible for farmers to vary, to express their preferences 
and to gratify their special interests even while attending 
satisfactorily to the many tasks of the farm. 

Provisions for Continued Growth. — Farming not 
only demands a many-sided development and offers a 
wide range for the exercise of persona! preferences, but it 
also provides the next essential characteristic of satis- 
factory living, that is, conditions suitable to continued 
growth. In this complex field one may change his 
object of special interest from time to time. New 
projects appear, new plans develop, and there is nothing 
in the nature of the situation to prevent adventure and 
effort. Moreover, the seasonal character of agriculture 
and the fact that its tasks vary from day to day and 
week to week, create unusual novelty and zest, with new 
demands and new adjustments highly conducive to 
continued growth. And these problems which the 
farmer faces daily, whether in the realm of science, 
business, farm management, or social relations, are 
problems which continually unfold. They lead on 
without end to new questions and involve many impli- 
cations. The problems of production, soil control, plant 
and animal breeding, destruction of pests, and the like, 
are based upon and related to the many sciences. 
Similar scope is involved in such other aspects of the 
profession as codperation and organization. To one 
who is able to comprehend his problems in their full 
significance, farming offers many “accessory values”’ 
and many ‘‘alluring leads.” In no sense is it a “blind 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS 165 


alley,” but rather an expanding field of unlimited 
growth. 

Provision for Real Social Membership. — Society 
demands that a vocation must be essential to social 
welfare. On this point agriculture is beyond question. 
It is in every sense a social service. But a vocation 
must furnish, in addition, through its inherent activi- 
ties, a basis for many interests common to the larger 
group. It must supply the means of a real and vital 
social membership. 

The richness of agriculture as an occupation fur- 
nishes a basis for real social membership to an unusual 
degree. Through the scientific aspects of his work the 
farmer has interests in common with science specialists 
of many types. The labor element of his occupation 
gives him a basis for appreciating the problems of the 
labor group. As a business man and capitalist and an . 
employer of labor the interests of these groups are not 
foreign to him. And his problems of transportation, 
tariff, credit, vocational education, distribution of food, 
and national land policies, all demand an active partici- 
pation in the fields of legislation, codperative organiza- 
tion, and marketing. With artists, poets, and musicians, 
also, the farmer might have much in common since 
many of the world’s best masterpieces deal with rural 
themes and country experiences. Could these common 
interests between farmers and others be but consciously 
developed, they would do much to break down the 
antagonism of the rural toward the non-rural group, 
and to give others an appreciation of the immeasurable 
possibilities in agriculture. Thus while living physically 
apart from the complex life of the larger society, the 


166 RURAL EDUCATION 


farmer and his wife are still members of a varied life of 
their own which duplicates in many ways the complex 
interests of society as a whole. Through these experi- 
ences properly interpreted and used, farmers might 
become real members of the larger group of which they 
are an integral part. 

Fruitfulness for Leisure. — A vocation or occupation 
is, after all, but a part of life. It should not usurp one’s 
time nor limit his interests to such an extent that he 
fails to appreciate and profit by other possible activities 
and social relations. As farming is now conducted, 
there is reason to believe that it absorbs a man’s time 
too completely. But when leisure is found, the farmer 
need not face it empty-handed. His daily experience 
as a worker should bear fruitful suggestion for other 
activities. Whether his spare hours be spent in reading, 
in travel, or in social life, he could carry to them from 
his work interests and experiences that would make 
them meaningful and worth while. Moreover, he might 
return to his work from these excursions into other fields 
with a larger vision and a bigger conception of his 
occupation. 


II. LACKS IN AGRICULTURE 


In the discussion thus far agriculture has been analyzed 
from the standpoint of its possibilities without reference 
to the manner in which farming is actually conducted. 
How large a conception has the average farmer of his 
many-sided task? How conscious is he of its opportuni- 
ties for personal growth? How fully does he conceive 
his social relations? What portion of his time is given 
to interests other than vocational? How nearly does 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS 167 


the farm woman realize the many possibilities of her 
work? How adequately in their occupational activity 
do rural folk attain that type of life which may be called 
good? 

To these questions there is no conclusive answer at 
present. There are, however, commonly accepted beliefs 
which will be given here as indicating conditions which 
present a challenge to any social agency interested in the 
larger opportunities of men for growth and social service. 

The Farmer not Master of the Situation. — It has 
been shown that agriculture as an occupation offers 
unusual opportunity for the individual to meet problems, 
master situations, and control forces to desired ends. 
Yet rural folk are in large measure living in a world of 
routine activity, subject to the control of external forces. 
Owing to the lack of scientific knowledge and technical 
skill, the farmer is frequently a slave to his task. In the 
organization of his work, in the control of his soils, and 
in his conflict with natural forces he often works blindly. 

As a result of working alone with these natural and 
social forces, which he cannot control, “the real country- 
man is likely to be a fatalist.... He cannot change 
the rain, or sunshine or storm or drought.... The 
result of this is that the man may either develop a 
complacent and joyful resignation, taking things as they 
come and making the best of them, or else a species of 
rebellion that leads to a hopeless and pessimistic outlook 
on life.... This outlook of helplessness is to be over- 
come by giving the man the power and courage of 
science, whereby he may in some degree overcome, 
control, or mitigate the forces of nature, or at least 
effectively adjust himself to them; and by securing the 


168 RURAL EDUCATION 


impulse of collected action.” 1 Without this sense of 
freedom and mastery, man lacks the characteristic 
human element and becomes but a victim of circum- 
stance. 

This same lack of mastery is found in the farmer’s 
relation o the larger social forces to which he is becom- 
ing more and more subjected. His understanding of 
the interests and demands of the people he serves is 
limited by his lack of contacts and his indifference 
born of a false belief in his social independence. His 
knowledge of transportation, marketing problems, eco- 
nomic movements and political and commercial policies 
is so meager that he is practically unable to cope with 
them. Being ignorant of these forces, he believes him- 
self independent and suffers the consequences. If 
conscious of them, he may attempt to adjust his work to 
their demands and direct them to his ends, but, upon 
the whole, farmers are still coping unsuccessfully with 
social and economic law. Yet without the mastery of 
this phase of the farming vocation economic return is 
decreased and the chance of abundant growth and 
satisfaction greatly reduced. 

The Rural Woman Restricted Also. — The actual life 
of the rural woman is also much restricted. She, too, 
has large opportunity to be self-directive in that her 
work offers many problems and lines of activity for the 
exercise of initiative and the control of means to desired 
ends. But conditions prevent her from being master 
of the situation. Like the farmer she, too, suffers all 
the handicaps of a meager preparation for her responsi- 
bilities, and because of this she often works in a treadmill 


1 Bailey, L. H. — The Training of the Farmer, pp. 71-2. 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS 169 


from day to day with little of the joy of mastery and 
control. Moreover, we found her world much neglected. 
Improvement of her work is made secondary to that of 
the farm. The rural family is supposedly a unit and is 
spoken of as a codperative concern with husband, wife, 
and children planning and directing its affairs in joint 
council. but this is a possibility and not a common 
practice. The husband is too often business man, 
banker, source of authority, and determiner of relative 
values. For the woman this means small participation 
in the directive planning of the industry and a very 
limited freedom in the making of the home and other 
opportunities for self-expresson. The demands of the 
farm are supreme and require her submission and adjust- 
ment. She suffers, therefore, not only from the limita- 
tions due to ignorance and lack of skill in her work, but 
from this subservience to an external authority. 
Farmer’s ‘nterest Primarily in Income. — Another 
outstanding characteristic of the farmer’s activity is its 
restriction to the task of increased production. This 
may be the result of necessity and of social and economic 
maladjustments, but whatever the cause, there is a 
tendency to rate things too largely at their money value. 
Evidences of this attitude appear on every hand. The 
federal government has long made its rural approach 
through an appeal for increased production. States 
spend large sums of money upon curing and preventing 
animal diseases whie human health is neglected. Wo- 
man’s work has been slighted because of its small money 
value. The purchase of expensive farm machinery is 
justified on the basis of larger yields and greater financial 
returns. While educational writers, quoted in the first 


170 RURAL EDUCATION 


three chapters, said that farmers would gladly support 
the rural elementary school if it could be shown to in- 
crease the corn crop, and the preceding discussion has 
shown (see Chapter VI) that the economy and industri- — 
ousness practiced by the farmer are largely economy in 
expenditures, and industriousness in adding to the 
family income. 

There is no intention here to belittle the desire for 
economic independence and efficiency as measured by 
income. But let the incompleteness of a life limited to — 
this interest be noted when gauged by the standards of 
“the good life.” Individual growth and social welfare 
demand that a man have many interests. Agriculture 
makes such varied interests possible. As already shown 
there is a rich return to be had from an appreciation and 
development of the scientific aspects of farming and 
its skills, arts and administrative and social problems. 
Agricultural experimentation, landscape gardening, h6me 
decoration, the raising of pure bred stock, community 
development, and professional organization — all these 
ideals and many others are sources of rare and fruitful 
expression. Interests, knowledge, and skills of this kind 
must come to have a large and vital place in the farmer’s 
life and purposing. He must grasp the significance of 
the work he does, enjoy its intellectual aspects and 
follow its leads into the many fields of science, literature 
and art. These impersonal pleasures add richness to 
life, develop into many new and varied satisfactions, 
and are of greater personal value than the mere increase 
of production and income. 

Non-vocational Interests Neglected.— But to be 
interested only in one’s vocation, however fully con- 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS ‘Fgh 


ceived, is not enough. “Each individual,” says Dewey, 
‘has of necessity a variety of callings, in each of which 
he should be intelligently effective.’”’ The farmer’s 
responsibility for other than agricultural problems is 
very marked. Yet these other interests, so funda- 
mental to the type of life we have in mind, tend to be 
neglected. Although farm life is cut off and isolated 
from the experiences of others, most speakers to the 
rural group carry messages of rural life only, while the 
vast storehouse of non-rural social culture remains un- 
touched. Rural recreation gets little sympathy. The 
rural home as an educative, spiritualizing center instead 
of an adjunct to the farm, has failed to receive much 
attention. Rural sanitation, rural community life, and 
rural art are not sufficiently considered. Reading clubs 
and musical organizations find expression in progressive 
communities, but far more common is the pig, poultry 
and corn club, which emphasize vocational interests. 
The idealization of economy and labor, the suspicion 
with which rural people look upon ‘‘white-collared”’ 
occupations, their criticism of urban leisure and of the 
‘indolence”’ of city women — these, and many other 
characteristics, show a lack of appreciation for other 
values and customs not involved in agricultural produc- 
tion. But for the sake of a larger growth, a richer life, and 
a more complete social membership, farmers must come 
to value these other aspects o our modern complex civi- 
lization and to include them as objectives worth seeking. 
Speaking of these larger problems Butterfield says: 


The tendency to neglect or ignore this problem is well illustrated 
in the remark that one hears so frequently as to be most exasperating 
and disheartening: ‘‘Show the farmers how to make money and these 


172 RURAL EDUCATION 


other things will take care of themselves.” By ‘“‘these other things,” 
often mentioned in a half contemptuous way, are meant such matters 
as the health, the play, the reading, the morals, the religion, the 
politics of farm people. ‘They are supposed to be minor interests — 
the real practical, man-sized task is to tell the farmers how they can 
make a profit, and then it will be time enough to talk about the 
“frills”? — indeed these lesser difficulties will find their solution in the 
mere fact that farm people, having more money to spend, will spend 
it for better churches and schools. We hear this sort of advice not 
only from some farmers but unfortunately more frequently from 
official leaders of farmers, even from agricultural college professors. 
It needs sharply to be challenged. It is barely even a half truth, and 
is working great damage to the best interests of the American farmer.! 


Community and Social Relations Undeveloped. — 
The very nature of rural life puts special responsibility 
upon the farmer for problems outside his vocation. 
Carver says: 


Few people realize how much more dependent the farmer is than 
anyone else upon his social surroundings. A business man in the 
city can choose his neighbors without changing his place of business, 
for the reason that his residence and his place of business are entirely 
disconnected. ... The farmer must live on his farm and must bring 
up his children there. ... As a result of this dependence he is com- 
pelled, more than any other class of men, to take an interest in 
neighborhood affairs. The safety and well being of his own family 
depend upon his having good neighbors and good moral and social 
conditions within his neighborhood.... The farmer, more than 
anyone else, has reason to take an active interest in the local church, 
the school, the grange, the library, local sports, and every other 
agency which may contribute to the social life of the neighborhood. 
If he allows these things to degenerate, it will profit him little to have 
come into possession of broad acres, to have grown big crops, and to 
have built big barns to hold them.? 


This demand upon the farmer for a definite interest 
in many activities is reinforced by the fact that rural 


1 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, pp. 57-8. 
2 Carver, T. N. — Rural Economics, pp. 342-3. 


RURAL OCCUPATIONS 173 


life is not highly specialized. In the country each 
individual is partly responsible for the many aspects 
of a well-rounded life. Rural living embraces the basic 
elements of a rich and varied community life. In this 
it differs widely from the city which is highly specialized 
and entrusts its community responsibilities to profes- 
sional leaders. Thus art, music, recreation, libraries, 
theaters, and the various other interests agitated 
and supported by special groups in the city must be 
generally cherished by all the people to succeed in the 
country. 

One of the major tasks of society is to integrate its 
groups. Social stability and progress depend upon 
integration, and individual growth results from it. As 
formerly shown (see Chapter VI) agriculture contains 
the essential bonds of a large relationship between farm- 
ers and other groups. Wesaw, however, that the farmer 
prides himself upon his independence, is somewhat 
indifferent to his social relations, and participates but 
little in the direction of national affairs. But the satis- 
factions characteristic of civilization are largely urban 
products — the products of groups living under urban 
conditions — and the more rural people grow into ways 
characteristic of modern progress, the more dependent 
they become. A belief in rural independence is possible 
only upon the acceptance of a limited vision of the scope 
of human life and a narrow conception of man’s social 
obligations. Through the many social bonds involved 
in agriculture we must develop a sense of urban interde- 
pendence, encourage codperation upon common tasks, 
and increase rural interest and participation in the 
larger questions of social welfare. 


174 RURAL EDUCATION 


Summary. — While agriculture as a vocation, then, 
offers a real social membership, opportunity for indi- 
vidual growth, and a varied social service, the analysis 
of this chapter shows certain failures to realize these 
possibilities in actual practice. The forces that serve 
the farmer must aim, therefore, to make him master of 
the situation and his wife the directing factor in the 
home. Breadth of interest must be cultivated so that 
their opportunities may bear fruit in larger vision, richer 
growth, and more abundant satisfactions and contribu- 
tions. A sense of responsibility for the development of 
a desirable community life and an appreciation of the 
close relationship between farmer and other peoples 
must come. From this consciousness of social unity 
and the mastery that springs from knowledge and co- 
operation will follow an abundant growth and social 
service. To attain this end we must interpret the rural 
problem in terms of fundamental human values. ‘‘Edu- 
cation must open up to the farmers the ‘kingdoms of 
knowledge.’ The democratic system must assume that 
its members want culture, want art, want music, want 
good literature and that they cannot only appreciate 
it but can live and thrive on it. ... They must sense the 
need of an organization of their forces, both for the sake 
of self-interest and in order that they may contribute 
their full share to the solution of our world problems. ... 
The main task in rural education is to keep the rural 
democracy forever studying, thinking, discussing, 
growing.” ! 

1 Butterfield, K. L. — The Farmer and the New Day, p, 121, 


CHAPTER VIII 


RURAL LIFE AS RELATED TO THE ESSEN- 
TIAL CONDITIONS OF CHILD GROWTH 


TuE last two chapters have emphasized the social and 
vocational aspects of rural life and presented certain 
conclusions. In proceeding now to the study of the 
rural situation as it relates primarily to the child, these 
conclusions cannot be discarded. The child is so much 
a part of rural life that the conditions described above 
have in large measure been his opportunity or limita- 
tion as the case may be. Centering our attention upon 
the child will serve, however, to stress certain factors in 
the situation and show additional needs and _ short- 
comings that must be met if he is to find n the country 
the conditions demanded by ‘‘the good life.” How 
fully does the rural environment offer the country child 
the essential conditions of growth, and what are its 
predominant needs from this point of view? These will 
be the chief considerations of the present chapter. 


I. RURAL FREEDOM EVALUATED 


The Nature of the Individual.— The most funda- 
mental characteristic of the individual is that of self- 
directed activity to ends that appeal. This means not 
only the opportunity to choose one’s ends but also to be 


free at each step to act as the directing agent and guiding 
175 


176 RURAL EDUCATION 


and controlling factor in the situation. Any environ- 
ment to be satisfactory must provide opportunity for 
the free and intelligent selection of ends and afford 
conditions that encourage initiative, purposing, exercise 
of judgment, and the control of means to their attain- 
ment. It must also lend itself positively to the realiza- 
tion of any worthy purposes one may establish. 

The Nature of Rural Freedom. — Much has been 
said and written concerning the freedom of rural life. 
The idea most commonly in mind when rural freedom 
is mentioned is the freedom from social restraint and 
from the artificial and conventional demands of the city. 
It is the freedom the farmer feels to do as he pleases, 
to be let alone, to follow his own fancy or interest. The 
man in the country has more space to himself. People 
live farther apart, see each other less often, and are less 
subject to observation. The country man feels that he 
can wear what he pleases, and as he pleases, without sub- 
jecting himself to criticism. His type of living, his daily 
customs, his standards of sanitation, the manner of 
keeping his premises, may be fairly well known by his 
neighbors, but interference from them is rare. 

But the freedom of the rural situation includes more 
than this seeming independence of social bonds. A man 
in the open country may be largely master of his own 
world, free to work out his ideas as he sees them, to set up 
plans, to propose ends, to choose and control means, 
and to vary the conditions as judgment dictates. In 
the preceding section this aspect of the farmer’s life was 
discussed at length. Rural life is so organized as to 
permit variation without interfering with others. The 
fact that there are many local units independently 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 177 


controlled and not highly organized or related, allows 
for changes without disturbing the social and industrial 
machinery. The independence of each individual farmer, 
the responsibility put upon the employed group, and the 
independence of each home, make it possible for each 
adult to live largely under the guidance of his own 
intelligence. 

This independent nature of each family, the freedom 
of the parents to work out their own ideals and plans in 
their local sphere, has large value for the children. In 
their world of play there is little to hinder them. There 
is small chance that they will interfere with the interests 
and rights of others, work injury to the settled order of 
things, or suffer harm themselves as they follow their 
fancies. With little restriction they utilize the varied 
assets of the farmstead and neighborhood in their play. 
Their close association with their parents makes avail- 
able in large measure this adult world which they are 
quite free to enter and explore. Moreover, early in 
their youth they become participants in the family 
industry. The nature of the work is such that each 
may find in it a task suited to his age, challenging his 
thought and ability. 

In this family group the child may often be a member 
of the family council. He may help to discuss issues, 
decide policies, and determine means. If he does not 
participate in the decision at this initial stage, he does 
soon afterward. Rural work is largely individual work. 
One is given a task and made responsible for it. This 
task as a rule is one whose procedure cannot be exactly 
determined. The means to be used are not always 
fixed. Variation in procedure to meet new circum- 


178 RURAL EDUCATION 


stances and the adjustment of means to ends, are con- 
stant demands. The countryman works much alone. 
Resourcefulness, thinking, planning, and responsibility, 
are characteristics not only permitted, but necessitated, 
by situations in which the country child finds himself 
many times a day. It is true that some of the large 
tasks such as plowing, have a certain routine and same- 
ness. Nevertheless farm life offers many of the finer 
forms of skill and in turn gives place to a multitude of 
tasks, less fixed in their demands. 

Essential Characteristics of Desirable Freedom. — 
While all this is true of the rural situation in which the 
child finds himself, it is not the complete picture nor the 
whole story. In his chapter on “‘The Individual and 
the World,’ ! Dewey discusses the origin and implica- 
tions of a concept of freedom which demanded a separa- 
tion of the individual and society. Under this premise 
the individual was thought of as a self-sufficient entity. 
Knowledge was won wholly through personal and private 
experience. As a consequence, mind, the source and 
possession of knowledge, was regarded as wholly indi- 
vidual. Man was able alone to construct his world, 
and freedom for him meant to be let alone to achieve 
knowledge for himself. This individualistic interpreta- 
tion of freedom has influenced our thinking on the farm 
problem, causing many to overestimate the value of 
rural freedom, and country people themselves to mis- 
judge its relative worth. Such ignorance of the essential 
characteristics of profitable freedom has prevented a 
true perspective on the limitations of the rural situation. 
We do find in the open country, it is true, freedom in 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, Chap. 22. 


a 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 179 


space, freedom from social pressure, freedom from highly 
complicated social and industrial machinery, and free- 
dom to do one’s own thinking and planning in connection 
with the daily activity. Here one is more nearly alone 
in his own little world than anywhere else, and free to 
create himself and his environment without much 
interference. 

But this absence of interference is not the basic ele- 
ment in freedom. Before one can profit by freedom, he 
must have conditions that will make it conducive to 
growth and satisfaction. Mind is a social product. 
The individual discovers himself, has many varied pur- 
poses in life, abundant sources of satisfaction, and secures 
control of the means of their realization only when he 
lives among people and associates with people in a world 
that is charged with meaning and opportunity. 


His (a man’s) responses grow intelligent, or gain meaning, simply 
because he lives and acts in a medium of accepted meanings and 
values. Through social intercourse, through sharing in the activities 
embodying beliefs, he gradually acquires a mind of his own. The 
conception of mind as a purely isolated possession of the self is at the 
very antipodes of the truth. The self achieves mind in the degree in 
_which knowledge of things is incarnate in the life about him; the self 
is not a separate mind building up knowledge anew on its own 
account.! 


In another connection Dewey says: 


We have already noted the defect of a psychology of learning which 
places the individual mind naked, as it were, in contact with physical 
objects, and which believes that knowledge, ideas, and beliefs accrue 
from their interaction. Only comparatively recently has the pre- 
dominating influence of association with fellow beings in the formation 
of mental and moral disposition been perceived. 


1 Ibid. — p. 344. 
2 Ibid. — p. 40. 


180 RURAL EDUCATION 


Gillette, with specific reference to the rural situation, 
says, “Freedom in the midst of nature without the 
stimulus of personal association may not be sufficient to 
guarantee a normal mental functioning.” ! 

This same dependence of the individual upon the 
resources of social life and the acquired social] heritage 
as a basis for individual initiative and originality is 
given by Thorndike. 


The truly initiating mind does not imitate less, but more. It imi- 
tates more men, in more fields, in a greater variety of conditions... . 
The truly independent thinker does not make less use of other men’s 
ideas than the servile thinker, but more. The expert man of science 
or law or business has a thousand masters while the servile mind has 
but a few.? 


II. ADDITIONAL DEMANDS UPON THE RURAL 
ENVIRONMENT 


In addition, then, to this mere freedom represented 
by an absence of interference and by a responsibility for 
directing the course of events, one must have the stimu- 
lus of social contacts and an environment rich in the 
fruits of race experience, including not only books, 
pictures, utensils, and conveniences, but also those 
standards and practices which serve as a motive and 
guide for the individual’s own development. ‘There is 
bere proposed, in addition to the opportunity for self- 
direction, the following conditions which any environ- 
ment must supply to be satisfactory. These include 
provision for: 


1 Gillette, John M. — Mitigating Rural Isolation, pamphlet, p. 14. 
2 Thorndike, E. L. — ‘‘ Education for Initiative and Originality,’’ Teachers 
College Record, Vol. XVII, Nov., 1916. 





RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 181 


1. Many stimulating social contacts. 

2. Free and intimate association with groups repre- 
senting different points of view. 

3. Superior standards and socialized attitudes and 
practices. 

4. Many possible interests, opportunity for self- 
discovery, and freedom to select among these 
interests. 

5. Permission and encouragement to vary from es- 
tablished customs and standards. 

6. Ready access to the social heritage and present 
contributions. 

7. Guidance in the problem of social adjustment, in 
self-discovery, and in the mastery and use of the 
tools of civilization. 


A study of the rural situation in the light of these 
essential conditions shows that its freedom is rather 
empty. The rural child may be self-directive, the 
environment may be subject to his use as his ends direct, 
but the other fundamental factors in a fruitful growth 
are, in large part, lacking. 

Many Social Contacts. — Rural life is limited in its 
opportunities for social contacts. The country child 
lives in the midst of his family, associating intimately 
with its members in their many activities. But to a 
large degree the family sets the boundary of his social 
life. In his neighborhood contacts he is handicapped 
by distance and by the lack of occasions for getting to- 
gether. The demands of farm life upon the country 
child’s time, the farmer’s idealization of work and indus- 
triousness, the belief on the part of the father that 


182 RURAL EDUCATION 


recreation is not essential, the lack of appreciation of the 
child’s interests in gangs, clubs, and camping, all serve 
to reduce even the meager chances which exist for associ- 
ating with others outside the immediate family group. 
_ The child works much by himself six days a week. Hav- 
ing Saturday afternoon off for baseball or group gather- 
ings is a rare privilege. Means of recreation and play 
are yet undeveloped. A few social parties, Sunday 
school, and trips to ‘‘town’’ measure for many all the 
social opportunities which rural life offers.! 

This isolation naturally develops a certain indepen- 
dence and self-sufficiency. The rural child must enter- 
tain himself and profits thereby. For this, however, he 
pays the price in undeveloped social instincts. He is not 
prepared through much mingling with people to be 
dynamically interested and to participate freely and 
easily in the social problems of his community or state. 
Social ease and graces are foreign to him. Conversation 
or discussion of public questions is something of a task. 
In the complex social life of the town he is not master 
of himself and lacks force. The results of this social 
isolation are expressed in the names attributed to farmers. 
All of this is to be regretted. It robs the child of an 
immediate and permanent source of satisfaction. But 
this is not the major loss. Social progress is the fruit of 
a codperative attack upon our numerous modern prob- 
lems. Individual growth is impossible except in a social 
setting. This social life, so lacking in the country, is 
the very heart of human life. Whatever can be done to 


1 See Rural Surveys made by the Department of Church and Country Life 
of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 





RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 183 


make possible for the rural child the social contacts his 
life demands will be an asset of most fundamental worth. 

Varied Social Contacts.— An abundant social life 
among peoples of a single group is not enough. Democ- 
racy depends for its stability and progress upon a com- 
mon culture, common interests, and a working harmony 
among its people. The continued growth of the child 
depends upon varied interests, the habit of question- 
ing, open-mindedness, and a continuance of youthful 
plasticity, while all of these, in turn, are dependent upon 
living in the midst of a varied and changing world. What 
does the country offer to the rural child? His social 
habits are undeveloped by the local social life. He is 
physically cut off from other groups and from town and 
urban centers with their different environments and 
standards from which he might receive the stimulus to 
question the accepted views of his group, and to defend 
or strive to change them. 

This physical isolation from people of other minds and 
types of life, this immersion in the customs, beliefs, and 
values of a single occupational group, is greatly increased 
by the class consciousness and conservatism of rural folk. 
The world of the adult becomes the authority of the 
child. He adopts the suspicions and antagonisms of his 
parents. He suffers criticisms at the hands of city hu- 
morists and too often comes to accept the belief that for 
some reason he is not over clever. This non-social atti- 
tude of town and country described in the first part of 
this chapter is another disastrous limitation for the child 
whose isolation is further increased by the tendency of 
rural leaders to aim at the construction of a unique rural 
civilization, to build a sufficient and unrelated rural 


184 RURAL EDUCATION 


community life, and to consolidate schools in the open 
country away from the contact and influence of urban 
standards. 

Galpin, in his study of the rural communities of Wis- 
consin, writes concerning the effect of rural isolation: 


The detachment from the currents of human life resulting from 
this distance of a mile or two between neighbors, is not so disastrous 
on the whole in its depressing mental effects, as in limiting the 
acquaintance of each home, casual as well as intimate, to a small 
number of people living under similar conditions, especially that of 
occupation. The practical effect of this limited acquaintance is to 
invite the penalties of inbreeding — breeding together the same sort 
of partial experiences within a narrow domain. It has been noted in 
a community study that farm homes situated on the main traveled 
roads between villages or cities are more socialized, having a greater 
number of connections with the organized currents of ideas, than farm 
homes on the back roads. Bare familiarity with other types of 
human life seen passing by the houses at close range apparently 
inoculates the home with some social adventure. The four-to-eight 
mile distance of a farm home from its nearest village or smallest city 
has been a severe check to diverse acquaintance and social connection 
at the village. The library, high school, and church zones around 
each village in Walworth County show how fortunate socially the 
farm home is which happens to be within hearing of the village church 
and school bells. 


In discussing the problem of rural social organization, 
the same thinker adopts the slogan, ‘‘Human contacts, 
more human contacts, and still more human contacts.” 

‘“‘How shall the farm family increase the variety 
of its personal contacts? How shall be assured to 
farmers mental touch with persons other than farmers, 
so that farm experience may be enriched by the other 
widely varied types of experience? How shall farm 

1 Galpin, C. J. — ‘‘The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community,” 


Research Bulletin No. 34, p. 20, Agricultural Experiment Station, University 
of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 





RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 185 


women come to close quarters with other types of 
women? How shall they meet the banker’s wife, as freely 
at least as the farmer meets the banker? How shall farm 
children and farm youth naturally come to meet and 
know other sorts of children and young people?” ! 
These matters are basic needs of rural folk. They were 
a dominant note in the needs of farm women as formerly 
presented. (See Chapter VI, p. 120.) If they are im- 
portant for the adult who is already a member of a 
group and whose life centers largely in his work, they are 
doubly important for the child whose interests and 
attitudes are but being formed. At this period the 
child should be growing into race membership. He is, 
however, adopting the social customs of his associates. 
Care should be taken, therefore, to provide through 
his social life this basis of abundant growth and large 
social service. Such a need for rural people makes 
certain demands upon the institutions of rural life. 
‘“‘We shall have then, from the purely social point of 
view, the rural school problem; the rural church problem; 
the rural local government problem; the rural health 
and recreation problem; the rural art problem; the rural 
publicity problem; and the like. The solution of each 
special social problem will be challenged with the test of 
‘more contacts.’ ’’? 

Superior Standards and Practices. — Any individual 
is the product of his group or age. From it in large 
measure he secures his ideals, his standards, his interests, 
and his habits and attitudes. We found in Chapter V 
that social adjustment is largely a matter of living in a 


1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, pp. 57-8. 
2 Ibid. — pp. 59-60. 


186 RURAL EDUCATION 


world of accepted socialized values, and of participating 
in activity that expresses socialized standards and aims. 
The rural group in which the country child is so com- 
pletely immersed transfers to him its virtues, its customs, 
its prejudices, and its beliefs. He profits or is limited 
by them as the case may be. On the whole these rural 
standards and practices are retarded. In some respects 
they are a distinct handicap to the rural child. Rural 
conservatism, rural independence, rural antagonism and 
suspicion, low sanitary conditions, limited interests, 
rural child labor, and the results of woman’s drudgery, 
all take their toll from child welfare. On the other 
hand, many advantages of rural living might be stated, 
of course. The purpose here, however, is not to be 
inclusive but rather to point out the meaning of certain 
conditions in terms of child growth and set tasks for 
educational effort. . The welfare of the child demands 
that the life from which he takes his models and stand- 
ards present him the best. 

Many Interests and Opportunity for Self-discovery. — 
The life of an individual is expressed in terms of activity 
toends. His satisfaction and continued growth demand 
many varied and fruitful interests in keeping with his 
nature. In answer to this essential requirement it has 
been shown that rural occupational and community 
life offer large possibilities. (See Chapter VII.) The 
organization of rural life is such that the child may 
come into personal contact with its many varied as- 
pects. ‘The numerous problems of the farm and those 
of the home and community life are all intimate ex- 
periences to him. He is a participating member in 
these various types of activity. He may profit here 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 187 


from the complexity of the farm occupation, from the 
undifferentiated nature of rural community life, and 
from his close association with adults. He might profit, 
also, under proper conditions, in his social relations to 
the larger world because of the many bonds that unite 
his experiences to others. 

But the rural child is not realizing these possibilities. 
He lives in the world of his parents which was found to 
be greatly limited by a specialization of attention upon 
production and income and by an ignorance and in- 
difference of science and the many possibilities of a rich 
community life. The studies of rural child labor men- 
tioned in another connection show how much the child 
is sacrificed to work. Conditions in North Carolina 
have already been cited (see p. 184) and the following 
quotations, based upon a detailed field study, state 
the rural situation in New York State. The study 
reveals, ‘“‘A picture of helpless childhood under deterio- 
rating social conditions which are obscured by the very 
isolation and neglect out of which they are made.”’ ! 
It “shows a type of social life that, unfortunately, can be 
matched in many places, and which must be generally 
understood if all country children are to secure their 
claim to mental and moral vigor and to education.” ? 
“The great complaint of the young people in the country 
neighborhood is ‘nothing to do.’ This gap they try to 
fill with sex excitement and with riotous mischief that 
may end in larceny and burglary.’’? 


1 Lathrop, Julia C. — Letter of Transmittal; U. S. Department of Labor 
(Children’s Bureau, Bulletin, No. 32). 
2 Ibid. 
’Claghorn, Kate Holliday — Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York, 
p. 41; U. S. Dept. of Labor (Children’s Bureau, Bulletin No. 32). 


188 RURAL EDUCATION 


Weak heredity is, however, by no means the whole story. The 
environment, in contrast to the teeming life of streets, is a trouble 
breeder by its very emptiness. People are not born knowing how to 
work; neither are they born knowing how to play. This is driven 
home nowhere more clearly than in those places where mere lack of 
space is not the factor which ties up the energy of children. The 
farm with its exaction of long, and often laborious, service draws 
them into the discipline of work even earlier than does the factory; 
but it does not teach them how to make use of what precious oppor- 
tunities they have for sociability. To this need the loneliness of 
the open country and the ‘‘deadness”’ of the little town again and 
again make a stupid or negative answer.! 


Not only are the local opportunities of the rural child 


ereatly limited, but the rural mental atmosphere and 
rural social customs compel him through lack of escape. 
There is no other group to which he can go. He cannot, 
even though he would, select associates whose interests 
respond to his own. If a variant from the group, there 
is small opportunity for him to find himself. What 
chance has he for self-discovery in case his interests fall 
without the group? Activity to ends that appeal in 
relation to one’s individual differences, and organized 
around one’s master motives is essential to efficient 
growth and service, but such an opportunity is poorly 
supplied by rural life. 

The poverty of the rural environment from this stand- 
point is more clearly revealed when we study it with 
respect to the demands of vocational choice. More and 
more we are coming to see the importance of wise voca- 
tional selection. The vocational guidance movement 
expresses our social consciousness in this field. As long 
as youthful crudeness characterized our industrial 
activities, peculiar fitness or unfitness was not especially 


1 Claghorn, Kate Holliday — Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York, 
p. 7; U.S, Dept. of Labor (Children’s Bureau, Bulletin No. 32). 


z 


: 


4 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 189 


regarded nor easily revealed. But now that expert 
service is required in the various vocations and pro- 
fessions, as In medicine, teaching, engineering, and the 
new science of farming, fitness and unfitness become 
significant factors, and intelligent vocational choice 
extremely important. As long as social welfare was 
measured in terms of sufficient production and the 
absence of large social disturbances, whether a man was 
fittingly placed in relation to his interests and desires 
was of small importance. With the new demands for 
expert service mentioned above, the new conception 
of the relation of an individual to his work, and the 
responsibility of society to him and for its own progress, 
a new appreciation of this step has arisen. In brief, 
results in interest, creative thinking, contentment, and 
social stability and progress, are dependent upon the 
proper choice of a vocation. 

But notwithstanding the importance of this matter, 
the rural situation does not provide the conditions essen- 
tial to vocational choice. Instead of being made familiar 
with the demands and opportunities of the various voca- 
tions in which men spend their lives, the rural child is 
handicapped by a familiarity with a very few, and a dis- 
torted knowledge of all. As a result of constant contact 
and several years’ participation in farm activities, he 
faces this question of vocational choice with certain agri- 
cultural resources to his credit. This is the only field 
with which he is at all familiar. Ties of friendship, 
opportunities for getting a definite foothold, chances of 
economic backing, habits of thinking, and various other 
factors, make this the easiest opening. As a result of 
such a preponderance of influence in one direction ninety 


190 RURAL EDUCATION 


per cent of the farm boys of New York State expressed 
a desire to remain on thefarm. Gillette says in speaking 
of the future of rural children that, ‘‘Ninety or ninety- 
five per cent of the population will either remain in the 
community they are born and reared in, or will remove 
to a similar community, one with similar interests.’’ } 
Such facts as these are used as a basis for determining 
what shall be done for rural boys. But even though 
this large percentage does tend in the direction indicated, _ 
we must not perpetuate the faults of the past into a plan 
for the future. These figures represent the fruits of 
limited opportunity. The only basis upon which 
democracy can build is that of fullest opportunity for the 
intelligent choosing of one’s vocation. 

To this familiarity with the rural field is added an 
ignorance of urban possibilities. Imagination and story 
supply a concept of city opportunities, and many of the 
more venturesome go forth to be dispersed among the 
various callings: Some rise and some fall, but all alike 
suffer the handicap of ignorance and unfitness for the 
tasks they undertake. Clearly the rights of the child, 
the profitableness of his future, and the ultimate welfare 
of democracy demand a practice quite different. Hdu- 
cation for the country child must supply the short-comings 
of his local environment. Farming, as one of many voca- 
tions, should be presented and fairly and justly ap- 
praised. It deserves particular attention because of 
its misrepresentation by the present inefficient, un- 
scientific, and discontented farmer and by the social 
stigma attached to it. But other vocations concerning 
which the rural child knows less must be zealously pre- 


1 Gillette, J. M. — Constructive Rural Sociology, p. 328. 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 191 


sented, also. The child must be given an exact knowl- 
edge of both rural and city offerings and made capable 
of free and intelligent vocational choice. The present 
tendency to vocationalize rural elementary education in 
favor of agriculture must be replaced by the broadest 
possible curriculum. These restrictions, as revealed by 
a study of his vocational opportunities, are true of his 
life in general. Child growth demands a thorough 
blending and integrating of urban and country life and 
a transmission to the country of all that the city, town, 
or village has that is good. It means a broadening of 
the world in which the rural child lives until his environ- 
ment includes in its scope the many worth-while possi- 
bilities which the present social order can offer. 
Freedom to Vary. — A further factor closely related 
to the one above needs noting. Self-discovery and self- 
expression and progress come best where the force of 
custom is not too strict. The farmer takes pride in his 
freedom, but after all, this freedom has very definite 
limits which are quickly felt by the stranger unaccus- 
tomed to accept rural practices and standards. In the 
country, fashions do not trouble a man. He may go 
without a collar, wear a colored shirt, or appear in over- 
alls. Within the accepted customs of the group he is 
free. But let him dress for dinner, play golf, or do any 
of the thousand things accepted among the more cos- 
mopolitan urban group! Improvements of the home 
often invite comment. ‘‘Putting on airs,” ‘gentlemen 
farmer,” ‘‘too ladylike to soil her hands’’ are comments 
upon those who break away from the accepted form of 
life, the unintelligent agricultural practice, or the house- 
hold drudgeries. A broader point of view on the part 


192 RURAL EDUCATION 


of rural folk, a more generous attitude toward different 
types of life, an appreciation of the new, and an encour- 
agement of variation, would all stimulate the child to a 
freer self-expression. 

Access to the Social Heritage. — To the demands 
already made we must add that of access to the social 
heritage and to the present attainments of the human 
race and the many contributions and progressive move- 
ments of current life. Whatever the race has won in its 
struggles — the problems it has faced, the solutions it 
has found, the lessons it has learned, and the means that 
it has developed for the mastery of natural forces and 
for coordinating the efforts of man, the tools it has 
invented, and the institutions it has established — all 
these are the just inheritance of every child and should 
be made available for his use in his efforts toward growth 
and social service. But here again the rural field is 
wanting. Its schools and churches serve the child 
inadequately; hospitals and health clinics are rare or 
unknown; and while newspapers, magazines, and books 
reach him, effective library service is yet unrealized. 
Theaters, museums of art and history, music, and lec- 
tures on topics of general culture are made available to 
him but seldom. The moving picture, which could 
bring so much of the world beyond to the rural child, 
is still little more than a hope. Many conveniences for 
the home and farm, and the tools of modern industry 
through which the strength of men and women might 
be conserved for bigger things, are still exceptions. Yet 
no one will deny that the rural child deserves to benefit 
from these various aids to individual growth. 

The present social organization is so highly specialized, 


i 


RURAL LIFE AND CHILD GROWTH 193 


its problems so refined, and its progressive achieve- 
ments so varied and scattered that special effort must be 
made to keep children in touch with modern contribu- 
tions. Here is a special task for those who would serve 
the rural child. ‘Habits, ideas, traditions, and ideals 
have long life in a rural community. Changes come 
slowly.... The farmer does not easily keep in touch 
with rapid modern developments, unless the move- 
ments or methods directly affect him. Physical agencies 
which improve social conditions, such as electric lights, 
telephones and pavements, come first to the city.” 
Conservatism, antagonism, indifference, and isolation 
all add to the difficulties of keeping in touch with modern 
problems and movements. And yet social service is 
dependent upon wise participation in these contributions. 
Individual advance is furthered by access to the advance 
of others. For the rural child this constant contact 
is unusually difficult, but it is none the less essential. 
Leadership and Guidance. — In the midst of this 
environment the child needs advice and help. Here is 
the task of the teacher, the minister, the recreational 
director, the social leader, and the community nurse or 
doctor. The child needs leadership. The more favored 
social groups are profiting from such service. Rural 
organization, then, faces the task of supplying these 
guiding agents for its children in order to make the 
environment contribute more largely to their welfare. 
The rural needs that have been presented here do not 
give a complete account of the rural situation. They set 
forth only the major problems in relation to child growth. 
These desirable conditions can be supplied in part by a 
development of local resources. On the whole, however, 


194 RURAL EDUCATION 


their realization is dependent upon a larger organization 
than the local community. Child growth demands a 
closer relation between town and country. Both must 
cooperate in the upbuilding of rural life. The larger 
opportunities and satisfaction of the town must become 
the heritage, as they have been the product, of town 
and country alike. Rural and urban antagonisms must 
pass. Codperation, friendship, and mutual respect 
must take their place. Only in this way can the limita- 
tions of the rural child be removed and his freedom made 
fruitful. The implications of these principles for edu- 
cation will now be considered. 





PA Leb) 


PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR RURAL 
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 





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CHAPTER IX 


THE GENERAL PURPOSE AND PROBLEM OF 
RURAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 


EDUCATIONAL organization in its many aspects pro- 
motes individual growth and thereby advances social 
progress. To ascertain the nature of educational effort 
for any particular group two things are necessary: First, 
to determine what the desirable life for the individual 
and society is; and second, to determine for any par- 
ticular situation the “lacks” which the educational agency 
must supply. Chapters IV and V attempted to 
answer the first of these questions while Chapters VI, 
VII, and VIII undertook to meet the second for the 
rural group. In the light of the principles thus stated 
and the needs revealed, what, then, must be the nature 
of the rural elementary school? Before proceeding to 
detailed suggestions for rural elementary education, the 
work of the rural school must now be stated in terms of 
individual growth and social progress and some of the 
suggested purposes for elementary education found in 
the first three chapters must be evaluated. 

Social Adjustment and Progress. — The school is a 
conservative force. It faces the task of preserving the 
most precious elements in the human heritage of skills, 
knowledge and ideals and through these integrating the 
child and society at large. It must develop in the child 
the interests and standards consistent with associated 


living. The child is largely a social product and is 
197 


198 RURAL EDUCATION 


fitted to adopt the practices and values of his group. 
Society to-day, however, is a complex organization 
encompassing many interests, many varied points of 
view and many forms of living. Distance and indiffer- 
ence separate these groups and their ignorance of each 
other is alarming. Misunderstandings, opposition and 
bitterness often characterize their social relations. Edu- 
cation must develop a common language, common stand- 
ards of conduct, and the other elements of a common 


culture. But society expects the individual not only to © 


live consistently with the interests and welfare of others 
but also to codperate with others intelligently and sym- 
pathetically in solving the problems involved in securing 
a better social adjustment, and in progressing to a more 
satisfying social life. This task of socializing the child 
will be greatly furthered by providing an environment 
for him in which these desired socialized ends and 
attitudes find expression, a situation which encourages 
the mingling of groups, the exchange of ideas, and a 
friendly codperation upon problems of common concern. 

Education is a “freeing of individual capacity in a 
progressive growth directed to social aims.’’ In addi- 
tion to socializing the child, the school must further his 
development. Dewey says, ‘‘The inclination to learn 
from life itself and to make the conditions of life such 
that all will learn in the process of living is the finest 
product of schooling.” ! Again he says, ‘The criterion 
of the value of school education is the extent in which 
it creates a desire for continued growth and supplies 
means for making the desire effective in fact.’”’2 Such 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, p. 60. 
2 Ibid. — p. 62. 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 199 


continued growth on the part of an individual is depend- 
ent upon his possession of many varied interests of a 
quality that will offer large future possibilities which 
lead him on to their realization. Growth of this type is 
dependent upon varied and stimulating social contacts. 
Mingling with peoples from other groups who have 
different customs, different points of view, and different 
problems is also conducive to the breadth of interest 
and the open-minded tolerance basic to continued prog- 
ress. This dynamic quality of any experience depends 
upon its appeal to the nature of the individual. An 
environment offering to the child the many possibilities 
of our complex social life together with freedom to choose 
among them as one’s nature dictates is essential to 
‘continued effort and satisfaction. 

But that is not all. The child must possess the ability 
to make his desires effective in fact. One’s environment 
must make available to him the resources of our social 
heritage, the accomplishments of the race whereby it 
has attained its present control over the forces of nature. 
The conception of elementary education as concerned 
solely with the “tools of learning’ is narrowing and 
repressive. Not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
but science in its many forms, art, music, the lessons of 
history, an acquaintance with the great characters of 
the past and the present, the achievements of other 
lands, the improvements that appear from day to day; 
all these must be made accessible to the child. The 
habits, the knowledge, the skills, the economical methods 
essential to his immediate ends, and his continued growth 
and efficient social membership must also be acquired. 
With such a task for education in general what is the 


200 RURAL EDUCATION 


specific problem of the rural elementary school? And 
what are its peculiar limitations and needs? 

The Proper Purpose of Rural Elementary Education. 
— The purpose of rural elementary education is the same 
as for elementary education anywhere. It is to help rural 
children live more satisfying and more effective lives. 
They, in common with all children, need a many-sided 
interest so selected and developed as to provide for the 


fullest self-expression, for the continued growth of the. 


individual, and for a happy and helpful social member- 
ship. They, in common with all children, need an inti- 
mate knowledge of the social world of which they are a 
part and of the various groups with which they must 
codperate in working for social progress. The ideals 
and standards of our people, the problems they are 
confronting, and the achievements they hope to attain, 
must become real to rural children as to all others. They 
must have access to the social heritage and master its 
resources and lessons as these bear upon the life of to-day. 
They must master the tools by which men have achieved 
so that they, too, may achieve the ends that appear of 
worth to them and thus become efficient in social service. 


The Influence of Environment upon Rural Elementary — 


Education. — The problem of end or purpose is not the 
only one to be considered, however. In addition to the 
query, ‘‘Where are we going?’ we must consider the 


related question, ‘“From where do we start?’ School — 


life is a course of experience instituted by society to 
supplement the experiences furnished by the chance 


environment.! What this supplementary experience | 


shall be, depends in part upon the educational influences 
1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, pp. 22-6. 





PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 201 


of the social environment outside the school. So while 
rural elementary education has for its purpose that of 
elementary education anywhere, namely the socialized 
growth of children, the fact still remains that these are 
rural children, living in a rural environment, and that we 
should expect certain differences in the rural elementary 
curriculum for this reason. But these will be variations 
in content and procedure and not differences in purpose. 

In general the rural environment will affect rural 
elementary education in three ways. In the first place, 
since the education of any child must be in terms of his 
experience, the approach to any desirable experience will 
be different. The teacher must always begin with the 
experiences of her pupils. She must talk their language 
if she is really to make their growth into the world they 
do not know most rapid and effective. Every factor 
must be brought within the realm of the child’s experi- 
ence and made to appeal to him as meaningful and vital 
in his own affairs. Much that has been done in agri- 
culture, nature study, manual training, club work, rural 
reading, rural arithmetic and so forth, has served to 
vitalize the work in this way. But still more needs to 
be done. The formal study of world geography should 
be preceded by a study of local or home geography. 
This lays a foundation for clear thinking about geo- 
graphical terms, principles and problems. When so or- 
ganized the geography course for the rural child varies 
greatly in the beginning, and in lesser amount through- 
out, from that developed for the city child. To illus- 
trate further, both the urban and the rural child need to 
know of each other and to realize their mutual depen- 
dence. But they reach this understanding from quite 


202 RURAL EDUCATION 


opposite ends and by considering different problems. 
The country child helps his parents pick apples and care 
for the chickens. He helps prepare them for market 
and sees them on their way. By following their course 
in imagination, he comes at last to the Sunday dinner 
of the city lad who is in this respect dependent upon the 
farm boy’s labor. The city child needs to appreciate 
this same relationship. For him, however, the course 
would be reversed. Starting from his Sunday dinner 
he should finally arrive at the source of his supply. — 
Through a different approach each comes to see a vital 
social principle. A consideration of this factor in curricu- 
lum-building would, without doubt, give rise to far 
greater differences between rural and urban curricula 
than now exist. 

The second source of difference in the rural curriculum 
due to environmental influence is to be found in the 
educational resources of rural communities. Sheer 
economy of learning requires that we utilize the educa- 
tional resources of the local life. This demands an 
educational diagnosis of the environment. We must 
know the resources available and evaluate the local life 
in terms of the ends to be achieved. We know, for in- 
stance, that the type of life lived on the farm throws 
responsibility upon the rural child early and often. He 
is given a task by himself and is expected to see it 
through. Initiative, application and perseverance are 
required. His daily work thus gives him a mastery of 
himself and of things that any city child might well envy. 

The country child lives, also, in a social group or 
community where what he does or thinks has some influ- 
ence. This sense of importance in a social situation is 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 203 


essential to a desire for participation in the affairs of 
social concern. No one will deny that we all need a 
quickening of interest in the problems of our common 
life. We know, moreover, that this civic consciousness 
and the habit of social participation must be started 
early, and that it can be best developed by dealing with 
the problems of the local community, because they are 
real to the child. An analysis of the rural social situ- 
ation will show that these possibilities for developing a 
sense of social responsibility exist in rural group life to 
an unusual degree. School children can take a real 
part in cleaning up the community; they can influence 
sanitary conditions and practices; they can have some- 
thing to do with furnishing a better type of entertain- 
ment. Rural children can soon be made to feel that 
what they think counts, to realize that they are an influ- 
ence, and to become habituated thereby to participating 
in the discussion and solution of social problems. 
Education as an end in itself, rather than a means; 
education as a process of continually reorganizing, re- 
constructing, and transforming the world about one; 
education as living here and now, rather than as a prep- 
aration for future living; always emphasizes the rela- 
tion of the educational activity to the child’s immediate 
experiences. The rural child is reared among animal 
friends, plant life, farm tasks and rural experiences. 
Education for him should strive always to realize one 
hundred per cent upon these rural opportunities and to 
gain from them their full store of growth and satisfac- 
tion. Moreover, he must enlarge his experience in 
terms of his immediate world. This world furnishes 
his first language and his approach to broader interests 


204 RURAL EDUCATION 


and fuller social growth. All this attaches unusual im- 
portance to the immediate rural environment from an 
educational point of view. 

- But while we define education as growth through 
daily experiences, this definition means living in the 
largest, fullest sense of the word, and never mere exist- 
ence under narrow local standards or meager outlook. 
Such a conception in no wise implies that the educa- 


tional content is to be composed chiefly of local material . 


or that the preparation given is to be limited to local 
interests. To put a child in a backward community, 
isolated from other forms and ideas of social life, a com- 
munity with impoverished interests and limited re- 
sources, and ask him to grow through his experiences 
is fruitless. To fit him primarily for these local demands 
is limiting. Country children have been living under 
these conditions for generations, and the net results 
are not pleasant to contemplate. The school must use 
the local resources to the fullest extent; but this it does 
primarily, because they can be made to serve the child’s 
general ends. Through proper education he can be 
stimulated to profit from his daily experiences. To 
permit this functional conception of education, this 
emphasis upon its immediate meaning and value, to 
limit a child to the situation in which he finds himself, 
however, is short sighted, undemocratic, and socially 
disastrous. Only when we surround the child with the 
essential conditions of his fullest development dare we 


be content to consider the local environment as a satis- — 


factory field of growth. It is the task of education to 
create an environment in which a generous growth is 
possible rather than to limit him to what is already 


oe 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 205 


available. The expansion of interests rather than their 
restriction must be our aim. 

Education to Serve the Real Needs of Rural Children. 
— Therural elementary school should differ consequently 
from urban schools in still a third respect. It should 
be developed with specific reference to the ‘‘lacks” or 
“needs” of rural life in general and to its own community 
in particular. The elements of modern life that must be 
brought to the rural child to round out and complete 
his environment, are peculiar to the rural situation. 
That which he needs to complete his world is what others 
have naturally, and, by the same token, what he has as 
his daily experience must be given to others through the 
efforts of their educational machinery. A definition and 
statement of these rural needs has been partly presented 
in the preceding pages and any attempt at curriculum 
building must take due account of them. Rural ele- 
mentary education will differ from urban elementary 
education, then, both in the content which supplements 
its environment and in its methods of approach. Its 
purpose, however, is that of elementary education any- 
where: to provide the fullest socialized growth for the child, 
and through this growth to integrate society. 

This conception of the purpose and task of rural ele- 
mentary education is finding expression also in England. 
Mr. G. A. Bellwood, representing the National Farmers’ 
Union on the Rural Education Conference, in his Notes 
on Rural Elementary Education, states the requirements 
of country schools as follows: 

The necessity of a thorough literacy foundation, the need of 


providing children with training which shall fit them for urban as well 
as rural life, and the importance of meeting the requirements of 


206 RURAL EDUCATION 


children of special ability. England believes that ‘‘it is the business 
of the teacher to be the ‘discerner’ and not the ‘equalizer’ of men.” 
The teacher must discover a child’s ability and reveal the child to 
himself. It is essential, therefore, that the rural elementary school 
should have a broad curriculum and “should give a training which 
shall fit boys and girls for life in the town, where some shall find their 
best. self-expression.”” But though none of these rural children 
migrate to town — “it would still remain highly disputable whether, 
so far as the elementary school goes, the education of the country 
child who will spend all his life in the country ought to differ to any 
considerable extent from the education of the town child. Especially 


doubtful is the supposition, often taken for granted, that the educa- - 


tion of the rustic should be less literary and more: ‘practical’ than 
that of the townsman.”’ 


The article concludes as follows: 


To sum up, rural elementary schools must aim at giving the 
children a good general education. The curriculum must be mainly 
literary in character and must not differ widely from that of urban 
schools. Practical agricultural subjects would at that early stage be 
of very little use to the future farm-laborer as a vocational training, 
and as a man and a citizen the farm-laborer needs a sound general 
education as much as any one.... (A ruralized school) will fail to 
meet even the vocational needs of the majority of the children — 
those whose future is bound to lie in other than agricultural employ- 
ment. ... Because of its rural bias it will fail to search out the 
varied abilities of the new generation and to make the most of the 
nation’s children by fitting them, one and all, for those walks of life 
for which they are individually suited.1 


Problems in Rural Elementary Education. — Having 
defined the function and set up these purposes for the 


rural elementary school let us turn now to its peculiar | 


problems. Within the school system itself are the well- 
known limitations of an untrained personnel, a loose and 


inefficient organization, an untrained and meager super- — 
visory force, and an equipment totally inadequate. 


1 The Athenaeum, October, 1917, pp. 494-8. Published at The Athenaeum 
Office, London. 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 207 


These demand unusual professional skill and resource- 
fulness. Rural teachers fail, as do most teachers, to 
make use of the local environment and local experiences 
as a source of immediate growth and as a means to 
larger experience. This knowledge and skill must be 
supplied. The preceding analysis of rural life empha- 
sizes the fact that the resources fundamental to a gener- 
ous social education are meager in the rural community 
whose interests are limited; whose social life, reduced 
largely to the mingling of people of a single group, is 
likely to be barren; and whose standards are not keeping 
pace with the best social practice. Access to other 
peoples, other ideas, other interests and other ways of 
living is handicapped by distance. To this natural 
handicap is added a rural conservatism that moves 
slowly, an independence maintained with pride, and a 
self-sufficiency that obstructs codperative effort and the 
intelligent use of social forces. Especially notable is the 
existence of an antagonism between rural and urban 
groups which hinders their exchange of ideas, their 
codperation upon common problems, and the appreci- 
ation of their mutual inter-relatedness. The improve- 
ment of the rural situation by the development of a more 
social attitude toward other groups, by building for the 
rural child a richer environment in which to grow, and 
by bringing to him the wealth of social resources and 
opportunities not found in country life, constitutes a 
fundamental problem for rural education. With the 
acceptance of this statement of educational principles 
and rural needs, what must be said concerning the 
proposed purposes for rural elementary education given 
in Part I of this discussion? 


208 RURAL EDUCATION 


Criticisms of the Purposes Proposed for Rural Ele- 
mentary Education. — The first of these current purposes 
was to retain the rural child upon the farm. The second 
and third, assuming that he would remain a rural member, 
were more specific, and defined the service the school 
might render. The second would prepare him for 
efficiency in production and secure a larger income for 
him through this increased skill. The third group saw 


his needs in larger terms and sought for him, through | 


education, a larger vision, a richer satisfaction, and a 
happier life in his future career as a farmer. 

1. Retention. As exclusive aims none of these can be 
justified in a democracy. Any attempt to predeter- 
mine the child’s future is autocratic. Rural life may 
need men, the world may need food, the open country 
may be a wonderful place to live. But granting all this, 
it is the task of elementary education to acquaint the 
child with life in its wider aspects, with its many oppor- 
tunities, and its rich variety of interests and forms of 
human service. Education must seek to prepare him 
for a larger individual growth and social membership. 
No man or group of men can justly limit the field of 
a child’s opportunity. Quotations bearing upon this 
point of view were given in variety to show the large 
number of writers who feel justified in imposing this 
limitation upon him, and in what various ways their 
purpose expresses itself. Schools were to be consoli- 
dated out in the open country or in rural-minded villages 
so that the bonds that tied the child to the rural group 
might not be broken. Club work was introduced to 
fasten the child’s affections to the land. His vision was 
circumscribed, the local opportunities glorified, in the 


a ae 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 209 


hope of keeping him there, schools were reorganized and 
better facilities provided, not because of the demands 
of the child’s mental and spiritual life, but because his 
longings must be appeased to hold him to the farm. 
Recreation was to be used as a means of making the 
vocation attractive. Agriculture, manual training, do- 
mestic science, farm arithmetic, reading in farm bulle- 
tins, and farm geography became the means of ruralizing 
the child beyond the seductive call of the town or city. 
It was expected that, ‘““Here they would early learn to 
know that they are indigenous to the soil; that here they 
must live and die.” Therefore ‘‘nature study in its 
broadest meaning, together with manual training and 
instruction in the various crafts which will make the 
farm child satisfied with his lot in life, are the real 
essentials.’ 

2. Vocational Efficiency. Those who have most fully 
imbibed the urban, economic, and official-governmental 
conception of the farmer-group see the rural child as a 
producer only, and his social service mainly in terms of 
food. Guided by this idea one who desires the school 
to realize the most efficient citizenship from the com- 

»munity states that the “distinguishing mark of efficient 
citizenship in the rural community vs skill in the produc- 
tion of food.’ This conception of the rural child, as a 
producing factor in the rural occupation, has stimulated 
various lines of endeavor. “Agriculture must be 
taught, because that is to be the occupation of most 
of the pupils of the rural school, and because the 
school can greatly increase their efficiency on the farm.” 
“A thorough course in manual training is highly desir- 
able and useful,” because ‘‘the modern farm with its 


210 RURAL EDUCATION 


variety of machinery, tools, special type of buildings, 
drainage systems, concrete construction work, etc., 
taxes the ingenuity of the farmer.’’ Industrial club work; 
junior projects; home project study; and vitalized agri- 
culture, limited almost entirely to rural occupational 
problems, emphasizing economic return and maximum 
physical product and fostered by agricultural interests 
from the adult point of view, are indeed being largely 
accepted as the solution of the rural school problem. © 
These are believed to offer a satisfactory educational 
content for the rural child. 

Adequate criticism of these proposals would involve a 
consideration of each of the quotations found in Part I, 
as these relate to educational and social principles. But 
this is impracticable. It is evident, however, that many 
of these writers have misconceived the purpose. of ele- 
mentary education and the essential characteristics of a 
life that is good for the child and desirable for a demo- 
cratic society. They ignore the fundamental task of 
elementary education which is to make the child a 
member of society in the fullest sense. ‘They aim, from 
the first, to make him a member of a group. They 
emphasize the differences, the qualities wherein his 
parent group is unlike others, instead of strengthening 
the bonds that unite him to all peoples. They center 
his attention upon local problems, instead of creating | 
interests for him common to the groups with whom he 
must codperate. They develop occupational ability 
rather than ability to participate in the problems of 
social progress; and then complain because he is not 
given a place in governmental affairs. ‘Society must — 


advance toward the ideal democracy of which we dream ~ 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 211 


through a broadening of the range of suggestion that 
floods the individual.”’? Yet many would doom the rural 
_ child, already handicapped in his contact with the world, 
to a rural diet in his school experience. It is of primary 
importance to society and to the individual that each be 
free and intelligently prepared to choose his own field of 
work. But instead of meeting this fundamental provi- 
sion these men determine the child’s future upon the 
accident of birth, and use the institution dedicated to 
his larger growth as a means of limiting his vision and 
determining his choice. 

3. Broad Rural Citizenship. While the members of 
the third group, whose larger vision is expressed in the 
following quotation, avoid the pitfalls of a commercial 
view of individual and social worth, they still doom the 
child to his father’s career. In the judgment of this 
group rural children ‘“‘require a preparation that will fit 
them to understand and carry out all the problems of 
successful present-day farming. 'They should also have 
their interests broadened and their minds developed 
through a knowledge of the world’s great literature, its 
sciences, its history, its art, and its music.’”’ The rural 
child is still regarded as a foreordained member of the 
farming group and the school’s service to him is measured 
in terms of the needs of the farming group. There is 
something attractive in this conception, however, be- 
cause it possesses an idealism and a vision of a bigger and 
more satisfying country life. As a philosophy of rural 
life, and an educational program for adults already deter- 
mined in their chosen work, it has much to commend it. 
As an educational program for rural children of a peasant 
class who are by social law “indigenous to the soil,’’ it 


212 RURAL EDUCATION 


may be acceptable. But in a democracy, as a. basic 
theory of rural elementary education, it has no place. 
The fundamental error in this philosophy is that it does 
not consider the difference between the needs of the rural 
child and those of the rural adult. The adult’s vocation 
is chosen, his group responsibilities are accepted; his 
point of view and field of satisfaction are known. But 
the child is as yet a member of no class. The elementary 
school is to give him basic membership in all. To limit 
him to the narrowed vision of any group, to wish upon 
him its prejudices, to prepare him exclusively for a rural 
citizenship, or to load upon him the problems of a de- 
cadent community, is inconsistent with the most basic 
of democratic principles. We must distinguish clearly 
between the problems and needs of a single group and 
the needs of the child, which include primarily those 
activities and standards which fit him for real member- 
ship in world society, and build for him the basis of 
continued growth. This the third proposal for rural 
elementary education does not do. 

4. Education through a “Ruralized” Curriculum. One 
of the recent tendencies in education is to teach the child 
by means of local resources and to approach and interpret 
the distant through familiar experiences. This tendency 
is expressed by the fourth group in Part I. These rural 
leaders felt the foreignness of most of the curriculum 
material given rural children. Inspired by the pedagogi- 
cal principle of apperception, and aware of the possibili- 
ties of varied local experience, they attempted to ruralize 
the curriculum. When such local material possesses 
intrinsic worth and is used as an approach to larger ex- 
periences this practice cannot be criticized. There is a 


PURPOSE AND PROBLEM 213 


tendency on the part of some, however, to become 
possessed with the idea of ruralization as an end, to be 
satisfied with the use of local material, local contacts, 
local interests, local problems in the school curriculum, 
and the development of local ability as an objective. As 
formerly shown, rural life, while rich in possibilities, does 
not furnish a complete educative experience in itself. 
The life of the child must be still further enriched. He 
must be flooded with varied suggestions and brought 
into touch with the many aspects of living. He must 
become open-minded to new ideas and broadly interested. 
He must participate actively in the larger problems of 
national and world welfare. During these early years 
he must be made to feel his unity with all men, and not 
be immersed in the limitations, prejudices, and prob- 
lems of his local life. Of this local life he will naturally 
and easily learn much anyway. School must bring him 
what his out-of-school life does not supply. And these 
are matters of larger scope and things that are other than 
rural. 

Conclusion. — It is the conclusion of this study that 
none of the first four objectives proposed for rural ele- 
mentary education in its relation to the child as given 
in the first three chapters is in keeping with the prin- 
ciples of ‘‘the good life.”” Most of these have been 
well stated and several represented real advances in 
progressive thinking at the time they were written, 
but the rural child has an equal right with every other 
child. Any attempt to keep him in the country 
through limited suggestion or overemphasis upon rural 
material is autocratic. To use the institution dedicated 
to the realization of his fullest ability as a means of 


214 RURAL EDUCATION 


increasing his material production and his economic 
resources is reducing his social service and his individual 
satisfaction to their lowest planes. Even to desire for 
him a larger life, a richer satisfaction and a broader 
social membership means little more when his place in 
that life is predetermined. Such a plan is more charac- 
teristic of the fixed class system of Europe where the 
idea seems to have had its origin. Neither is it 
possible to attain the ends desired through even the 
wisest exclusive use of the many local experiences and 
social problems afforded by the rural community. 
Rural elementary education is merely elementary 
education in a rural setting. The principles that 
control its activity and purposes are those of child 
growth in general and social welfare at large. There is 
nothing local in its purpose. Its differences will be due 
to the local approach and to the different needs to be 
supplied in order that the rural child may realize, 
through his environment, the growth that is justly his, 
and in order that society may realize from him the 
contribution it has a right to expect. To create such an 
environment for the child and to foster such growth is 
unquestionably the task for rural elementary education 
as well as for all other phases of elementary education in 
a democracy. 


CHAPTER X 


THE NATURE OF DESIRABLE SCHOOL 
ACTIVITY 


WE have discussed the basic purpose of rural elemen- 
tary education and its relation to the purposes of elemen- 
tary education in general. We have pointed out the 
factors in the rural life situation which justify a difference 
in the content of the rural elementary curriculum. 
There arises now the question of the nature of school 
activity and of the type of procedure which we should 
aim to secure in the rural schools. 

Educational Method Based on Life Activity. — In 
general, schoolroom practice should accord with the 
fundamental principles of individual activity and 
growth. The analysis of the characteristics of ‘‘the 
good life” in its individual aspects (Chapter IV) revealed 
certain implications for educational method. ‘The fun- 
damental human characteristic is self-directed activity 
to ends that appeal. This involves the selection or 
acceptance of ends, access to the necessary means, 
freedom to select in terms of their usefulness, and 
opportunity to exercise judgment, carry responsibility 
for the procedure, and control the forces to attain the 
proposed end. 

We must remember, then, that even within the school 
child life is composed of activities. Whatever his ends 
may be they are something he wants. These for the 


child are very inclusive. They may be the mastery of 
215 


216 RURAL EDUCATION 


some skill, the formation of a habit, the making of some 
toy, the ability to enjoy literature and art, or the solu- 
tion of some technical or social question. They may be 
near or distant, large or small, simple or complex. 
Whatever they are they set the goal, determine values, 
and become the basis for selecting materials. School 
work should be organized in relation to ends to be 
attained, and it is obvious that there should be a real 
interest in the ends set up for child attainment. This 
may be interest in the mere activity or in an apprecia- ~ 
tion of the large relations of the problem. Effort and 
satisfaction are in proportion to the end’s dynamic 
appeal. The importance of interest in the activity is 
emphasized, moreover, by the demand for the develop- 
ment of new interests. The present must lead on to 
new and better wants if activity and satisfaction are to 
accompany life. 

Since satisfaction is found in the many details of the 
procedure rather than in the results alone, it is important 
for the child to share responsibility. He should be free 
to survey the material at hand, to evaluate it in relation 
to his end, to devise plans, to determine methods, and to 
vary procedure as judgment dictates. Herein will be 
found abundant reward for effort. 

In such a situation subject-matter and materials are 
means. They are to be used and not merely learned. 
Their worth is relative to the purpose involved and they 
are meaningless unless useful in this connection. Method 
is nothing more or less than an effective way of employing 
the material at hand to some desired end. It is never 
something apart from subject-matter. To treat it so is 
to deal with a barren abstraction. 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 217 


The Essential Conditions of Learning. — Such char- 
acteristic activity on the part of the child leaves no 
room for meaningless drill, purposeless repetition, the 
mere conning of lessons or the doing of tasks. The 
essential conditions of learning are thus given by Dewey: 


Under normal conditions, learning is a product and reward of 
occupation with subject-matter. Children do not set out, consciously, 
to learn walking or talking. One sets out to give his impulses for 
communication and for fuller intercourse with others a show. He 
learns in consequence of his direct activities. The better methods of 
teaching a child, say, to read, follow the same road. They do not 
fix his attention upon the fact that he has to learn something and so 
make his attitude self-conscious and constrained. They engage his 
activities, and in the process of engagement he learns; the same is 
true of the more successful the methods in dealing with number or 
whatever. But when the subject-matter is not used in carrying 
forward impulses and habits to significant results, it is just something 
to be learned. The pupil’s attitude to it is just that of having to 
learn it. Conditions more unfavorable to an alert and concentrated 
response would be hard to devise. Frontal attacks are even more 
wasteful in learning than in war. This does not mean, however, 
that students are to be seduced unaware into preoccupation with 
lessons. It means that they shall be occupied with them for real 
reasons or ends, and not just as something to be learned. This is 
accomplished whenever the pupil perceives the place occupied by the 
subject-matter in the fulfilling of some experience.! 


Drill there will be and repetition, but only when their 
purpose and value are fully appreciated as furthering 
some desired achievement. 

If we view the question of education from the stand- 
point of social needs, we find the same demands. Society 
is a progressive organization, ever facing new problems 
that demand solution. Such solutions depend upon the 
ability of men to sense the need, to make plans, and to 
collect and use material to satisfactory conclusions. 


1 Dewey, John — Democracy and Education, pp. 198-9 


218 RURAL EDUCATION 


Arguments for This Type of Activity. — Socializing 
the child, developing in his mind an appreciation of his 
dependence, and larger social relatedness can best be 
done by showing him how some problem of his own 
involves, and is involved in the activity of others, rather 
than by having him merely read about them. The 
child who would trace the products of his summer’s 
labor or find the source and history of his food and cloth- 
ing will be carried far afield and come in contact with 
many peoples, many activities, and many different con-~ 
ditions. Distant countries and industries then have 
meaning. Different customs and forms of social life 
become more than words. He thus realizes a clearer 
knowledge and develops an increased sense of sym- 
pathy and appreciation for these distant facts and 
peoples, because they have become vitally related to 
him. 

There are, of course, certain hindrances to this type 
of school activity. Our school has developed under the 
belief that its material should be organized under 
particular subjects. Each of these represents a more or 
less isolated phase of human experience. Each presents 
certain habits to be formed or facts and principles to be 
learned. So impressed are we by this tradition that 
those who want to add a new idea to the curriculum of the 
elementary school usually demand a separate subject 
for their special hobby instead of considering the pos- 
sibility of making it an integral part of some present 
activity. Local geography, local history, nature study, 
boys’ and girls’ club work, hygiene, community civics, 
sewing and agriculture are all claiming the right to a 
special course. ’ 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 219 


The Problem for Educators. — Our subject-organiza- 
tion may remain, but its closed-compartment aspect 
must give way. The old conception of the nature and 
function of content is passing. It is the purpose of the 
school through the curriculum to furnish the child the 
essential experiences needed to promote his develop- 
ment. These experiences, to accord with his method 
of learning, must come in the form of ends to be attained. 
They will be of such a nature that he will desire their 
attainment and in their attainment will realize the 
desired growth. Whether they grow out of his own 
experience unaided by the teacher or come as a result of 
teacher-leadership in the present situation is a small 
matter. The main point is that they become his, 
appeal to his interest, command his attention, and 
stimulate his activity to their attainment. Educational 
leaders are determining educational objectives more and 
more specifically with reference to their social values. The 
psychologists are determining the mental changes to be 
expected and the experiences essential to bring these 
desired changes, while those working with the cur- 
riculum find their task in interpreting the changes 
desired in terms of ends that appeal to the child to be 
educated, constructing problems or projects that will 
appeal to him, and in providing for him the essential 
growth which education is to accomplish. 

This may be illustrated in the realm of number. We 
are beginning to determine rather accurately what 
arithmetical skills are needed in the world of affairs. 
What problems in addition, in multiplication, what size 
of fractions, what tables, what sort of problems the 
child needs to know are all being investigated. The 


220 RURAL EDUCATION 


bonds to be formed in addition, the most economical 
learning procedure in teaching long and short division, 
the best method of subtracting, are problems the psy- 
chologist has partially settled for us. The chief question 
left for the curriculum-maker here, then, is how to make 
number work appeal to the child as a real and fun- 
damental part of his life. 

In so far, therefore, as we can cast the desired expe- 
rience into activity directed toward purposes that 
appeal; in so far as we can relate the essential habits, 
skills, and attitudes to the attainment of some desired 
end; in so far as we can make the socially essential 
knowledge fulfil a recognized function in relation to the 
individual’s purpose, we have attained a more natural 
educative experience.! 

Advantages of the Rural School for Project Teaching. 
— Certain elements in the rural situation are particularly 
conducive to this organization of school activity. The 
first of these is the rather loose organization of the rural 
school system itself. The ‘project’? method implies a 
large freedom of adjustment to individual and grade or 
group interests and to the demands of the particular 
situation. The smaller rural unit, the greater indepen- 
dence of each individual, and the fact that a variation 
in one school is not a cause of interference to another 
makes more feasible this adjustment to individual and 
local interest. 

The use of this method is further facilitated by reason’ 


1 The nature of the purposeful activity as a method in the educative process 
is fully described by W. H. Kilpatrick in his article on the project method in 
the Teachers College Record for September, 1918, Vol. XIX. The procedure 
therein presented seems most completely to meet the demands and conditions — 
of individual growth. 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 221 


of the fact that the school life and the out-of-door life 
can be intimately and effectively related. The giving of 
school credit for home work, as in the home and club 
project idea, has found a fertile field of growth in the 
country. The fact that projects started at school can 
be carried further at home and thus furnish a laboratory 
for school theory has made this relationship popular and 
profitable. Home gardens, home projects in domestic 
science, art, landscape and home beautification; in 
household administration, and manual training; projects 
in various materials as wool, leather, and cement; crop 
and animal studies involving science, management and 
business; all these have been used with abundant results. 
The only criticism to be offered is that they have been 
misconceived in purpose. They have been too largely 
commercialized or too narrowly vocationalized. Such 
projects are excellent as a method. They are fully 
worth while in themselves as an educative experience, 
but they must lead out into larger realms of knowledge 
and appreciation to be in keeping with the needs of the 
child. . 
The variety of problems presented to the child through 
rural experience, and the fact that he is in intimate 
experiencing contact with these many types of rural 
activity, make his out-of-school life especially fruitful. 
The fundamental relation of all these local problems to 
the larger social problems gives an unusual line of 
approach through them to the interests and activities 
of other men and a broader world outlook. 

This method is made more feasible because of the 
fact that the child’s out-of-school experience centers 
largely around definite play, chores, or work. Although 


222 RURAL EDUCATION 


limited in its range, his life is anything but idle or empty 
of opportunity for self-directed activity. Household 
cares, the morning and evening duties, caring for animals, 
and the larger tasks of the farm come to him as definite, 
specific assignments or things to do. Such purposes are 
the organizing element in his daily life. To their accom- 
plishment his efforts are directed. Being thus accus- 
tomed to seeing activity as means to ends, he is well 
prepared to profit by the use of the project idea. . 

One of the most valuable characteristics of rural life 
lies ‘In the fact that the environment is not so definitely 
fixed as to preclude initiative and change. The nature 
of rural life is such that there is of necessity a large 
amount of individual responsibility, a large demand for 
the exercise of judgment, and opportunity to initiate, 
to vary, and to direct and control means to ends. Itis 
a situation wherein the constantly changing problems 
demand resourcefulness. The rural child in his world 
is accustomed to the very procedure the ‘‘project”’ 
method contemplates. His out-of-school world is subject 
in large measure to his own direction and can be used by 
him in working out the purposes originating in his school 
life. 

Practical Implications of the Foregoing Theses for the © 
Making of Curricula. — The construction and applica- — 
tion of a curriculum involving the foregoing principles ~ 
cannot be secured at once. The task is too inclusive, 
the conception too different from our present formal — 
course for this. The customs of our institutions and the ~ 
habits of the teachers trained by them are too fixed and 
rooted to hope for a transformation either sudden or 
sweeping. But the conception gives something to work | 


a 


— 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 223 


toward and several valuable contributions have already 
been made. A few of the problems that arise in such a 
process of curriculum-making may now be pointed out. 

1. State-Wide Courses of Study Ineffective. In the 
first place, under this conception, there can never be a 
state-wide course of study. Certain standard results 
will be established, as marking acceptable degrees of 
attainment in the fundamental subjects. There will, no 
doubt, be certain common elements as in arithmetic, 
reading, and world geography which all children will 
need to master. But in the mastery of these when they 
are mastered in the process of purposeful activity, the 
same facts may be considered, the same skills may be 
acquired, and the same knowledge attained, even though 
the organization of the material and the nature of the 
particular procedure and experience may be quite 
different. 

On the other hand, there will be much that is dif- 
ferent. Conditions are so varied, local resources, 
experiences, problems and needs are so diverse, especially 
_ between country and city, that a course of study made 
specifically for the one must be a misfit in many respects 
for the other. This will be clear from even a cursory 
study of rural and urban needs in hygiene and sanitation, 
community civics, or recreation. 

2. The Curriculum not Static. In the second place, 
the curriculum is not a static thing to be built for a five 
or ten year period. In its major objectives it is as 
constant as the purposes of society. In many of its 
phases, as, reading, writing, language, spelling, it is fairly 
stable. But some of its aspects change frequently. If 

history and geography are regarded as means of giving 


224 RURAL EDUCATION 


insight into present-day problems and skill in meeting 
these problems, for example, then that part of their 
content worth considering by any group will depend 
upon the problems faced by the group. The social 
heritage is valuable. It is a vast storehouse of expe- 
rience. It is not, however, to be mastered entirely. It 
is a storehouse to which we go in case of need. ‘The 
particular path or approach leading to it will likely 
change with different classes and from year to year. We 
are dealing with living beings, not with pieces of wax to — 
be molded, nor near-vacuums to be filled. So we must 
obey the law of intelligent living and constantly adjust 
the course of study to the changing situations and needs 
of those to be instructed. 

This situation may be illustrated by reference to the 
practice of medicine. There was a period in the history 
of medicine when the same cure was prescribed for many 
diseases. The patent medicine put up in some central 
office by a combination of medicinal elements, each 
having some value in specific situations and prescribed as 
a cure for a long list of varied ailments, is still a relic of 
this type of healing. But modern scientific medicine 
has passed far beyond this practice. It has at its com- © 
mand multiple resources for restoring and preserving — 
health. It does not, however, attempt to make any one ~ 
person take them all. All are good. All are available. 
The doctor, however, diagnoses each individual case and ~ 
applies from his varied store just that which is needed to — 
produce the desired physical change. Just so in the 
present instance. While we have made much progress in 
education, we are still too near the ‘patent medicine” 
stage in curriculum-making. Not content with having 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 225 


a vast store of human experience upon which to draw as 
needs demand, we wish to administer the total dose as a 
protective against a mental need that might arise. What 
we must do is to see that our vast store of human expe- 
rience is readily available, then study the particular 
individual or community need, and administer education 
scientifically. A state-wide “dose” is impossible. A 
“dose” this year may not meet the difficulties for next 
year. The cure must suit the disease in medicine. The 
curriculum must suit the need in education. 

3. Must not Be Autocratically Prescribed. As a 
consequence of this a third fact is apparent. A pre- 
scribed curriculum cannot be constructed in some central 
office by a single individual or even by a group of indi- 
viduals removed from the scenes of application. Little, 
if any, of the present curriculum content has been 
selected or arranged with specific reference to the needs 
and problems of individuals or suited to the demands of 
particular communities. Instead of this a general course 
of study has been prescribed, suited to no particular 
place or group, in the apparent belief that what is suited 
to no one in particular must be suited to all. 

4. Manner of Construction. It would be more con- 
sistent with scientific curriculum building to start the 
work as aseries of local problems. Each teacher, as each 
doctor, should be expected to study the experiences, 
resources and needs of her pupils and community. This 
educational diagnosis should then determine the task of 
the teacher and, in part, her procedure. Through this 
practice certain habits, skills, knowledge, and attitudes 
will be found necessary. Problems and projects will 
arise. Means and methods of solving these problems 


226 RURAL EDUCATION 


will be found. The course of study for any community, 
the mental and social “dose,” would thus become an 
application of general social resources to the particular 
needs of the group concerned. In this way each teacher 
would help to build her own course of study. 

The products of such experiments in various schools 
where the curriculum had been constructed in terms of 
particular needs, might then be analyzed and from these 
could be evolved a common content based not upon what 
ancient customs, or textbook writers, ignorant of actual — 
needs or educational leaders removed from the actual 
point of application, might decree. It would be a selec- 
tion of that which had been found useful, interesting, 
and worth while in a hundred or thousand specific 
situations. Having been found useful here, the chances 
are that it would meet a felt need in other situations. 
By this procedure we would thus finally discover the 
educational needs that are fairly constant and the social 
resources most useful to man. We would also discover 
the difficulties involved and appreciate more fully the 
necessity for treating each child or community somewhat 
as an individual case needing diagnosis and special 
prescription. 

Demands upon Rural Teachers and Supervisors. — © 
Such results cannot be attained easily. They will be the — 
work of experts, enthusiastic teachers, and years of 
experimental study. But they are worth trying and are | 
now being tried with promising results. The teacher ; 
who would contribute to this development must have a — 
clear grasp of social ends, an insight into community : 
needs, a command of social resources, and a skill in ~ 
directing interest and effort so that the essential expe-— 


,. 
4 


DESIRABLE SCHOOL ACTIVITY 227 


riences will follow. Where the teacher is not so expert, 
it is possible, while not cutting entirely loose from the 
old form of school activity, to attempt certain phases of 
school subjects upon this basis. Often a teacher is 
particularly enthusiastic about some special aspect of 
school work. In this she is likely to have better infor- 
mation and more insight and ability. Here she might 
study the community needs and attempt the essential 
ends by organizing activity around the problems of the 
children. Having learned the trick and sensed the free- 
dom and vitality of this type of teaching, she is then 
eager and capable of attempting it in other fields. 

To carry this out, however, greater responsibility must 
be given the teacher. Greater freedom must be given 
her to work in terms of social ends and the facts and 
resources at hand. Supervision must be expert and 
abundant in order that the limitations of the teacher and 
the bias of the particular situation may not keep her from 
attaining desired educational results. 

Requirements in Textbooks and Equipment. — Two 
other factors, textbooks and equipment, need special 
attention if our new curriculum is to be realized. In 
a school of this type the teacher’s ability to suggest vital 
problems, to stimulate, organize and direct activity, and 
to provide resources, is at a premium. ‘Theoretically, 
all that is needed is a vital problem, an interested 
student, a directing teacher, and abundant resources of 
information. The time may come when we can dispense 
with textbooks. But the task is too big, at present, for all 
except the most expert. It is far beyond those who are 
teaching our rural schools. The rural teacher needs help. 
This can be given toa great degree by proper texts. 


228 RURAL EDUCATION 


But in place of the formal encyclopedic type of text, 
which is practically stuffed with highly organized, 
abbreviated bits of world knowledge and social principles, 
we need books containing a series of fundamental prob- 
lems carefully selected and graded as to age, attractively 
stated, and followed by suggestions as to method and 
procedure. Subordinate questions, detailed information, 
specific references, and any other material that will 
promote desirable school activity and facilitate eco- 
nomical progress in achieving ends and developing ability 
to master similar problems should also be included. 

In attaining such a program of education, the equip- 
ment of the school becomes a vital factor. The barren 
country school of to-day with its formal classroom and 
_ conventional seats must be replaced by a working labo- 
ratory where problems will arise naturally in the midst 
of experience and can be satisfactorily solved. The 
library, the conference room, and the workshop become 
the center of educational activities; in such an environ- 
ment, suggestive problems, partially planned procedures, 
a directing teacher, skillful supervision and _ helpful 
resources in the form of books and equipment are all 
necessary 1n providing a working setting for this type of 
learning. 


CHAPTER XI 


APPLICATION OF THESE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF 
SELECTION AND METHOD TO VARIOUS 
SCHOOL SUBJECTS 


THE principles and implications of this study must 
find their application to the specific studies of the cur- 
riculum, if their effectiveness is to be realized. As a 
result of several factors in the discussion, one might be 
justified in advising that we discard our present organiza- 
tion of school work under separate studies and rebuild 
the curriculum anew in more functional terms. The 
attempts of such an outline of school work are full of 
promise in real educational activity and results.! But 
while granting the correctness of the principle and the 
possibilities of its practice, it seems best, for the present 
at least, in view of the complexity of the rural teaching 
situation, and the restricted preparation of the average 
rural teacher, to strive for an improvement of school 
work under its present organization into various subjects. 
The influence of old names may offer a serious handicap, 
it is true, to the introduction of new materials and new 
procedure. But even so, more progress is likely to 
come in this way than from the chaos that will almost 
certainly result in any attempt at total reorganization. 
The separate subjects can be considered merely as 


1 Bonser, F. G. — The Elementary School Curriculum, and Meriam, J. L. 
— Child Life and the Curriculum. 


229 


230 ~RURAL EDUCATION 


convenient centers of organization within the total social 
heritage. They are guides for the teacher. The child 
should arrive at them instead of starting with them as 
fixed and separate types of experience. 

In considering the separate subjects the major factors 
of the preceding discussion must be borne in mind. 
There is, first, the factor of educational objectives. 
These, we have assumed, are the same for all children in 
the elementary school wherever found. ‘They need to be 
determined in greater detail for education as a whole and, 
for the present, until some other organization becomes 
feasible, they should be specified carefully for each 
particular subject. This study has not been detailed and 
has aimed only to point out some of the major objec- 


tives which elementary education must aim to secure. © 


The second factor is that of the conditions of the person 
to be educated and the environment in which he lives. 
Educational diagnoses of a far more detailed and scientific 
sort must be made before the social resources’ can be 
economically and effectively applied to particular 
individuals or communities for the purpose of attaining 
the specific social objectives involved. The diagnosis of 
rural conditions, resources and needs given in Chapters VI, 
VII, and VIII, merely suggests some of the items which 
must be taken into consideration. It offers illustrative 
suggestions of the work that must be done rather than 
conclusive evidence of the exact educational problems of 
the rural school. 

The third factor is that of child nature. Whatever is 
done in any particular subject must accord with the 
nature of child growth. So intimately are subject- 
matter and method related that if you change your 


—e 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES ~— 231 


method, you change the actual content and results as 
well. The facts on the printed page of a text in history 
will be the same whatever the method or school proce- 
dure. But the pupil’s experience, the real content of the 
page for him, will not be independent of method. Con- 
sequently attention to the manner in which the material 
is experienced is as important as the problem of the 
needs to be met or of the content to be supplied. And 
this procedure will most nearly meet the demands of 
child activity when it is organized as projects. 

Reading. — What suggestions for rural reading follow 
from the foregoing discussion? How important is 
reading for rural folk? What type of reading should be 
done? What suggestions follow for the teaching of 
reading in the rural elementary school? 

Reading offers two major contributions. It is a 
source of information and a means of recreation and 
enjoyment. If we think of the need for information on 
the many tasks of farming, the questions of scientific 
conquest, the events of the day or current civic issues, 
we find that the rural inhabitant must rely largely upon 
reading. If we think of the vast social heritage of racial 
ideals, ambitions, dreams, failures and achievements, 
which are to us all both a stimulus and a goal, reading is 
the key that unlocks them. If we think of the knowl- 
edge that is basic to social intelligence, sympathy and 
cooperation, we realize that it must be secured mainly 
from printed sources. The pure enjoyment available in 
our novels, short stories, poetry and drama is likewise 
dependent upon reading resources and reading ability. 
Much there is in rural life to give direct, rather than 
secondhand, experience. There are many sources of 


232 RURAL EDUCATION 


enjoyment other than reading. But the fullest growth 
and richest satisfaction can be achieved only by being 
in constant contact with the scattered activities and 
past experiences of the world to-day, and these for the 
countryman must come chiefly through reading. 

One feature of rural life bears with special influence 
upon the importance of reading. This is the leisure time 
of both children and adults during the winter months of 
cold and inclement weather. <A profitable employment 
of this spare time either for informational purposes or 
for enjoyment is a crying need in most rural homes and 
communities. Moreover, while at work with his hands 
the rural member of society often has a vast unused 
opportunity for mental occupation. Nothing can serve 
better to fill this time than a store of facts gathered with 
reference to the social problems of the day, the tasks of 
farming, or the more persistent problems of life and 
philosophy. 

Again, rural regions must remain somewhat sparsely 
settled, and somewhat removed from social centers and 
the many social contacts where an exchange of ideas 
through conversation is common. The rural dwellers 
therefore depend largely upon reading and the imagina- 
tive reconstruction of distant objects, situations, and 
events if they would keep in touch with affairs. The 
socialization of rural life through roads and telephones 
is doing much to overcome this traditional isolation. 
Travel is increasing also and will give many basic 
experiences that the farmer has lacked in the past. 
Motion pictures, if properly chosen, offer an excellent 
means for making real to him what distance denies. 
But at all times reading must remain for him the best 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES —§ 233 


source of information concerning other phases of life and 
its numerous problems of social adjustment and progress. 

All this proves the importance of more than a 
“limited literacy’? which enables one to spell out a few 
sentences. Such an acquisition is totally unsatisfactory 
for rural people, above all others. Reading, the 
essential link between the limited, isolated life of the 
rural community and the rich and varied experiences of 
other groups in the complex social organization, needs 
unusual emphasis. It must become an habitual practice 
for rural folk if they are to become growing individuals 
participating effectively in social progress. 

What should rural people read? As just shown, 
reading has a unique importance to country folk, because 
it furnishes the one practical way out of their limited 
world into the experiences of others. But it must be 
employed as a way out and not as a restriction. The 
present tendency to limit the reading of country children 
to farm and home topics is socially dangerous and blind. 
The use of rural readers throughout the early grades can 
be partially justified on the basis of apperception, but 
to center the reading of adolescent boys and girls upon 
bulletins dealing with pigs and chickens can scarcely be 
advocated except as a means of fostering interest and 
developing an appreciation of the printed page. One of 
the arguments advanced in favor of such reading material 
is that other material is empty of meaning and becomes a 
drudgery and mere calling of words. But this situation 
is due very largely to the fact that the reading and 
experience of country children have been sorely neglected 
in the past. Their present interests are narrow and 
restricted because permitted to become so through poor 


234 RURAL EDUCATION 


teaching. To continue the practice of limiting their 
reading to their present meager interests is no solution of 
the problem whatever. 

As a counter-proposal to this the life of the rural child 
must be greatly enriched. We must make other places, 
conditions and types of living realto him. The problems 
that arise in this larger world into which we lead him 
will demand the gathering of data from many sources. 
Geographies and histories, bulletins and books, news- 
papers and magazines, scientific reports and novels, will 
all furnish their quota of material to serve his needs and 
shed light upon his studies. Reading for the purpose of 
gathering information whose use is appreciated will 
persist, but his purposes must not be limited to the 
activities of his own hands nor to the local life of the 
community. 

Neither must these more factual sources of reading 
material measure the scope of the rural child’s resources. 
The whole field of literature must be entered, explored, 
and used. ‘The practical side of rural life is needing all 
the influx of new ideas available in printed form. 

Scientific farming, sanitary practices, and marketing 
tend to lag behind advancing theory and practices else- 
where. The farmer and his children need to know 
other peoples, to keep in touch with current issues and to 
keep informed about social questions and be prepared to 
offer sound judgment upon them. In all these rural 
folk are undoubtedly lacking. But if we turn to the 
more spiritual side of rural life and to questions of 
recreation, enjoyment, and leisure activities, we find an 
even greater need. Here in the realm of literature is a | 
wealth of human values almost unrealized and untouched 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES 235 


by rural folk. Of the contribution of literature to life 
Hosic says: 


It is an art and is capable, therefore, of giving aesthetic pleasure 
and of developing the aesthetic sense; it provides imaginative 
experience and trains the imagination in constructive and interpre- 
tative activity; it plays upon the finer feelings and makes keener 
sympathy; it embodies high ideals of life and conduct and sets a 
standard of duty; it greatly enlarges the reader’s knowledge of human 
life and tends to cosmopolitanism; it is a convenient and useful 
source of recreation and sometimes of comfort and consolation; and 
since it is everywhere and always the expression and product of fine 
intelligence, it can hardly fail to promote intelligence in those who to 
any degree apprehend it.! 


MacClintock evaluates it thus: 


This brings us at once to the vision of another service rendered the 
child by literature. Here he is as if he looked upon life. He sees 
events worked out to the issue; he sees people expressing themselves 
in deeds and words, transforming themselves and others for good or 
bad, calling upon him for approval or condemnation or for sympathy. 
. He finds here his heroes, his ideals, his models. He learns manners 
without tears and morals without a sermon. In some sense he sees 
life steadily, and sees it whole, so that he widens his social horizon to 
take in these many groups of all sorts of men. Mentally and morally 
he must enlarge to contain the persons and events he learns to know.? 


These quotations and many others emphasize the fact 
that literature has a large contribution to make to the 
needs of rural people and that these values must be 
brought to them. 
_ It was stated a moment ago that, with this large 
demand upon reading in a modern education a ‘‘limited 
literacy’’ or mere ability to pronounce words, is entirely 
Inadequate. Yet this is too often the product of the 
teaching of reading. The very term “‘reading’’ is an 


1 Hosic, J. F. — The Elementary Course in English, pp. 43-4. 
2 MacClintock, P. L. — Literature in the Elementary School, pp. 35-6. 


236 RURAL EDUCATION 


indication of this situation and of the problem involved. 
Of the several aspects of reading — namely, the develop- 
ment of skill in recognizing and naming symbols, reading 
primarily for the information involved, and absorbing 


literature for its many contributions — the course in 


_ reading in rural schools is limited far too often to the 
first. No one will deny that all others depend upon 
this. No one will gainsay that such skill is not one of 
the first and primary aims of the elementary school. 


But that does not mean that it should become an end in 


itself, widely isolated from the other purposes which 
give it meaning. The second and third aspects of read- 
ing named above are sadly neglected in rural schools. Here 
the rewards of literature are seldom sought and the infor- 
mational aspect is kept carefully apart in other studies, 
If the teacher is above the average, she develops some 
power in mastering the contents of the ‘‘readers.’’ Other- 
wise skillin themechaniesof word-calling largely measures 
the results of instruction in this most important subject. 

All of this must be changed. The course in reading and 
literature must be thought of as a series of ends so chosen 


as to be attractive to the child and to involve in their — 
attainment the development of the essential skills of | 


reading. An interesting illustration of such an attempt _ 


is found in Miss Dewey’s report of Mrs. Harvey’s work — 


at Porter School. School work was composed of activity. — 
Reading was an outgrowth of an essential part of the 


carrying on of such activity. This relationship between 
life problems and purposes seems to have persisted 
throughout the work of the school. The children read 


for information with reference to their home and 
school projects and found motive for their literature 





APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES = 237 


in their Shakespearean Reading Circle and _ similar 
activities. 

To some this may seem going far afield for a motive to 
interest children in reading. Children are known to 
read for the mere sake of saying words. ‘To them it is a 
new skill, the control of which gives satisfaction. One 
writer says, “‘It need not be feared that the work will be 
uninteresting. Children have a natural interest in 
words and sounds. The imitative tendencies, so 
prominent in the mental life of children, can be used 
with great effect. The mere imitation of sounds, 
independent of their meaning, the fondness for strange, 
long, or musical words, the pleasure in gibberish and 
nonsense rhymes, which most children know, testify not 
only to their delight in imitation but to their pleasure in 
making sounds for the mere sake of the sounds. They 
find satisfaction also in mere activity.” This gives 
the teacher a good entering wedge, but it will serve only 
as long as the “‘toy”’ is new. It is a much easier appeal 
than to be constantly seeking to lead the child into a 
consideration of meaning and an appreciation of content. 
It is easier also than to be constantly concerned with the 
purposes and problems of child value which should 
motivate reading. But these more difficult tasks are 
those to which reading is a means. They are the essen- 
_ tials of this needed education and without the teacher’s 
- guidance they are seldom attained. 

Arithmetic. — Arithmetic has been severely criticized, 
because it is said to deal largely with urban activities 
rather than with those of farm life. Some have questioned 
it under this assumption because it tends “to make 
clerks and storekeepers of country boys and girls rather 


238 RURAL EDUCATION 


than farmers.” This argument, we have held, has 
nothing to do with the matter. Others have criticized 
the subject because so much of it dealt with city activities 
and was meaningless and foreign to the rural child. 
Arithmetic, according to this group, should be vitalized. 
It should grow out of the child’s experience and have 
to do with the problems which he has to face. In this 
way, through its origin and its constant application to 


real life situations, it will become a useful and much. 


used instrument for handling his affairs effectively and 
economically. This contention deserves consideration. 
Any analysis of the problems used in arithmetic gives 
some reason for this objection. A classification of the 
problems found in four textbooks shows following types: 
Per cent of total 


Subject number of type 
problems 
A. Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry . 10.8 
B. Extraction of minerals . . Raa a 0.2 
C. Manufacturing and mechanical industries hire 18.1 
De Transportatian tba scans) ene. an ene cee eee 9.9 
EP) Trades a,etm, et are 21.9 
F. Public service (not pieaahaee classified) . 5 aire 6.2 
G. Professionalservice. . . aie at? aes 2.1 
H. Domestic and personal service. . ... . 0.8 
17): -Clerieal'ocedpations 7 vir 2 2. 3 ih liste ae ee 0.4 


The distribution of population among the various - 


occupational activities listed above is as follows: 
A. Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry . 33.2 
B. Extraction of minerals. Am 2.5 
C. Manufacturing and mechanical industries sate 27.9 
De; Transportation’. 26. ce ous eee 6.9 
| A Wy Fe Coe OE ee ie 9.5 
F. Public service (not Sieoieee lassified) Ais 1.2 
G. Professionalservice. . . ace Pe 4.4 
H. Domestic and personal service. . ...,. 9.9 
]; ¢Clerical:occupations A sac hs oo ise 4.5 


a 


¢ 
f 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES ~— 2389 


The author then concludes as follows concerning the 
above facts: 

That the largest per cent of type problems come from “‘trade”’ is 
not surprising when we remember that arithmetic developed pri- 
marily as a necessity of commerce. It is, however, gratifying that so 
large a per cent of the type problems come from other sources, 
particularly “personal activities’ and ‘agriculture, forestry, and 
animal husbandry.”’ Only 9.5 per cent of the working population are 
engaged in “trade,” while 33.2 per cent are engaged in “agriculture, 
forestry, and animal husbandry”’ and all adults, regardless of occupa- 
tion, participate in ‘‘ personal activities.” ! 


Textbooks typical of those examined by the writer of 
the above article are doubtless used in rural schools. If 
we consider the place of agriculture among the occupa- 
tions, more problems bearing upon the activities of farm 
life should find a place in the education of rural children 
and all others. This is all the more apparent for rural 
children when we reflect that arithmetic problems should 
be real to the child. The approach and application in the 
fundamental operations, in fractions, in weights and 
measures, in percentage and mensuration should be 
from the experience, and applicable to the experience, of 
rural children. Many a child has the proper arithmetic 
bond established through school experience, but it does 
not function when needed, because it was not tied to the 
life situation in which it belongs. 

While arithmetic is primarily a tool, something to be 
used automatically, this is not its only function. It has 
a socializing as well as a utilitarian value. The rural 
child should approach his arithmetic as it bears upon 
his daily experience. The subject should gain a func- 

1 Monroe, W. A. — ‘‘Economy of Time in Arithmetic.”’ Sixteenth Year 


Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, pp. 111 ff. University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago. 


240 RURAL EDUCATION 


tional value in its application te his tasks and problems. 
Part of the so-often-mentioned unreality of the present 
arithmetic to the rural child is due, however, to the 
limitations of his experience. His knowledge of life 
situations where number is used is small. We must 
enlarge his world so that other life activities and expe- 
riences other than rural are real to him. We must 
enrich his life so that number may have applications for 
him besides those to corn crops and the mixing of fer-_ 
tilizers without losing its meaning. 

Part of this can be done through arithmetic itself. 
When properly taught, a knowledge of social institutions 
and activities, and the many uses of arithmetic in the 
conduct of our common affairs becomes clear to him. 
Of this function of arithmetic Suzzalo says: 

No more does arithmetic in the best schools confine itself to 
figures alone. Figures are applied in concrete problems. There 
may be days of teaching when not a figure is used during the arith- 
metic period. The social setting, the business situation, which calls 
for the calculation, is studied as carefully as the process of calculation. 
The students are given a knowledge of banking as well as skill in the © 
computation of interest. They may visit a bank, a factory, a shop, — 
as the case may require. Instead of having fifteen problems that — 
deal with fifteen different subjects all more or less remote from one — 
another, as was almost universally the case with older textbooks and 7 
teaching methods, the class hour may be given over to fifteen problems 
related to one situation, such as might develop in the business of a — 
bakery shop or an apartment house. Thus arithmetic gradually 
gains social setting and unity.! 

y 


If any one need is paramount in the lives of rural 
children it is this task of acquainting them through © 
every possible channel with the activities, life, and social — 
function of the many groups in our civilization, and the — 


1 Suzzalo, H. -— The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic, pp. 19-20. a 
ed 


i 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES 241 


way in which their separate functions are inter-related 
and mutually dependent. Banking industry and trade 
could, if approached through some major project involvy- 
ing arithmetic, become real, understood, and respected as 
important institutions in our common life. Start with 
calves and chickens if desired. But make the project 
involve on its mathematical side the function of banking, 
transportation, and manufacturing. Master the calcu- 
lations involved in these various institutions and activi- 
ties and in so doing come into closer touch with the in- 
stitutions and their function in the social economy. If 
rural life problems are properly treated and projects 
properly chosen, every aspect of life will be experienced 
in this vital way. 

To one concerned with this larger social contribution 
of arithmetic another problem arises which is quite 
opposed to that seen by the rural enthusiast. In the 
distribution of typical problems we found that agricul- 
ture did not have its just proportion of space. This was 
significant from the immediate and practical point of 
view. From the socializing point of view the following 
statements are even more significant. “...anexamina- 
tion (of the data) will disclose that no problems have 
been found assigned to a large number of the specific 
occupations. These occupations make up 65% of the 
total working population.”! Not all of these occupations 
will be worthy of note. It would not be advisable to 
develop skill in the technical problems of special occupa- 
tions. From the social point of view, however, many of 
these activities, engaging 55% of the working population, 


1 Monroe, W. S. — ‘‘Economy of Time in Arithmetic.’’ Sixteenth Year 
Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, p. 124, 


242 RURAL EDUCATION 


should be brought to the attention of the rural child. In 
this respect arithmetic should be made still more non- 
rural. 

One other feature needs mentioning even though it 
may seem to be harping upon a well-worn theme. Skill 
in manipulating figures or in solving the ordinary text- 
book problem contributes but little to the education of 


rural children. The essential skills of arithmetic should ~ 


become automatic. The judgment aspects should be 
perfectly mastered. But to be most profitable for 
growth these skills must not be regarded as the final end 
nor be separated from the context which gives them 
meaning. They must be used in a life situation, and 
one means of insuring both an appreciation of the skills 
themselves and of their practical application to life 
situations is to have them develop out of such situations. 
There seems to be especial need for this caution in con- 
nection with rural schools. Here problem-solving has 
become through custom quite an end of education in 
itself. Who that is familiar with the rural school has 
not found the upper grade girls and boys, usually the 
boys, spending an extraordinary amount of time in 
working arithmetic? Its unit nature, its definiteness, 
the possibility of checking its work by answers, the 
puzzle aspect, are all so appealing that its use, its applica- 
tions, and its social significance are quite lost sight of. 


Hygiene and Sanitation. — In hygiene and sanitation — 


one may easily see both the specificness with which the 
work must be suited to the needs of rural life and the 
evils that would follow if the rural curriculum were 


limited to the present practices of rural folk. In this sub-— 
ject, at least, we have escaped from the old disciplinary — 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES = 2438 


idea in education and also from the conception of 
education as a mere knowing of numerous facts. Con- 
sequently the old type of physiology, that physician’s 
encyclopedia compressed into an elementary textbook, 
will not serve our purpose. What we seek is practical 
results in the form of health-conserving and health- 
producing habits, knowledge, and attitudes. 

The definition of health objectives is the task of 
medical experts. In the last analysis they must state 
for us the essential conditions of health preservation. 
The analysis of these into specific school objectives is 
the work of the educator. As an illustration of what 
can be done and what must be accomplished we have 
Bobbitt’s analysis of health objectives for secondary 
schools.1 These specific health objectives must be known 
to the teacher. With them in mind she must then 
diagnose the conditions and needs of her individual com- 
munity and construct a course of study for her particular 
school. 

What are the problems of rural health and sanitation? 
Much has been said in support of the health conditions 
of rural living. Rural people themselves believe strongly 
in their advantage. But notwithstanding the easily 
demonstrable natural advantages of rural folk with 
reference to health, and in spite of the fixed belief that 
rural life conditions and the health status of country 
people are superior to those of urban localities, com- 
parative studies give strong evidence to the contrary. _ 

Some indication of rural health needs can be seen in 
the list of defects given on p. 186. <A more inclusive and 
detailed list is given in a Pennsylvania Health Survey of 

1See the School Review for December, 1920, pp. 738-49. 


244 RURAL EDUCATION 


_ the school children in rural or fourth class districts. In 
this 72.7% of all pupils were found defective’ 24% had 
defective vision, 51.7% had defective teeth, 27.96% 
had enlarged tonsils.! 

A consideration of this problem soon convinces one 
that no uniform course of study will meet the situation. 
Health aims and values will be quite common for all 
children everywhere, but health problems will vary 
with the community, the home, and the child. The 
construction of a suitable course of study in some central 
office is quite impossible. The field worker also, con- 
scious of the objectives and in touch with the situation, 
must contribute largely to the curriculum. 

Those who advocate building a purely rural civilization 
and a school in keeping with it seem to have neglected 
the problem of higher sanitary standards. The preven- 
tion and control of disease and the scientific administra- 
tion of medicine are rather recent practices. With rare 
exceptions the advances are first realized in the larger 
centers of population. They spread from here out- 
ward. Whether we think of the habit of frequent 
bathing, the more digestible ways of preparing food, 
the isolation of communicable diseases or the elimination 
of patent medicine, we find them emanating from the 
city. 

- On the other hand rural people are isolated, are but 
moderately in touch with improvements, and thus 
become conservative and often suspicious of change. 
Here, again, the course in hygiene and sanitation must 
be made a means of enlarging the rural horizon and of 


1 Pennsylvania Health Bulletin, No. 59, p. 78. State Department of Health, 
Harrisburg, Pa., July, 1914, 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES 245 


bringing rural folk into contact with other than rural 
standards. This does not imply that all urban practices 
can be applied unchanged to rural life, or that urban 
practices are all good or rural practices all bad. It 
means merely that maximum growth is the fruit of an 
interaction of dissimilar points of view and that the 
country will profit by this larger knowledge. 

Such a course will serve two ends. It will not only 
give the rural child new standards of sanitary practices 
but will contribute something to the breaking down of 
that isolation, that belief in present practices and hal- 
lowed custom, that antagonism to the new, which has 
been in so many respects a blight upon rural progress. 

General Primary Lessons. — The more effective rural 
schools are making some provision for a study of local 
geography, local history, community civics, nature study 
and hygiene in the lower grades. In this there is an ex- 
cellent illustration of the new curriculum-making in the 
subjects of the elementary schools which are as yet not 
highly organized and formalized. 

In the first place textbooks for these subjects are 
either uncommon or do not exist. Consequently the 
makers of these courses have drawn freely upon the 
child’s activities, interests, and environment. They 
have studied questions that arise in his daily experience, 
and have really tried to help him understand his world 
and to meet the demands of his immediate environment. 
Since those who have outlined these subjects have been 
concerned with life situations, the material has been 
presented largely in the form of problems, or questions 
for consideration and solution. Not much formal 
organization has been attempted in its earlier phases, 


246 RURAL EDUCATION 


and the work is not stereotyped. In fact, it is almost 
proof against a formal general treatment just because it 
must be local and, being local, must be largely individual. 

Here is a wonderful opportunity for the rural teacher 
to do a bit of real creative work, to undertake the task of 
diagnosing the “‘needs” and resources of the immediate 
environment and to select and provide those experiences 
most essential to growth. Rural life offers abundant 
resources and problems, interesting in themselves, fruit- 
ful right now, and promising large returns for the future. 
But there is a tendency on the part of some to separate 
this work for younger children into the special subjects of 
nature study, hygiene, civics, history, and geography. 
This erroneous practice is extremely unfortunate. 
Through it the unitary nature of the child’s experience is 
being lost sight of in the haste to foist upon him the 
adult scheme of subject-matter organization. As an 
illustration of this we may turn even to the generally 
excellent Course of Study for the Public Schools of Balti- 
more County, Maryland.: If the proposed work for the 
lower grades in nature study, geography, and history 
were taken from their separate compartments in this 
outline and thoroughly mixed, no one, judging by con- 
tent, could place them again under their original head- 
ings. | 

To the child these questions are unit problems. He 
does not distinguish their phases, for they are all closely 
related in a single experience. Nature study and local 
geography cannot be separated. Geography is astudy of 
earth conditions and laws and the manner in which they 
influence the behavior of man. Nature study is primarily 


1 Published by Warwick and York, Baltimore, Md. 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES = 247 


concerned with nature as such, yet if the functional view 
_of education is maintained, that is, that all things are 
studied only as they make a difference to man, there can be 
no real difference between them. To drill upon the facts 
of nature without carefully considering their relation to 
man is no more justifiable than the impossible words of 
our old spellers or the fictitious problems of our early 
arithmetics. Hygiene and sanitation in many of their 
early aspects are questions of man’s relation to natural 
conditions. Pure water, catching cold from exposure, 
polluting streams, preventing mosquitoes and _ flies, 
providing fresh air and sunshine are nature study, 
geography, or hygiene as one may choose. Community 
civics cannot be separated much from these other sub- 
jects. Visiting the sick, draining the school ground, 
caring for and beautifying the yard, preventing stream 
pollution, providing for bird life are examples of this 
union. 

Here in this new field, as yet unorganized and un- 
spoiled, the teacher should think of the material as a 
general course. Leave it unnamed if necessary, but have 
clearly in mind the objectives to be attained, and elect 
problems, activities and projects in terms of these objec- 
tives. Any fundamental question will lead into several, 
perhaps all, of these fields. A study of the activities 
of the farm may be primarily a question in local ge- 
ography, a basis for teaching community civics, an 
introduction into questions of industry, a source of 
inquiries in nature study or an approach to history. 
The study of the problem of pure water for the school 
may be a question in hygiene, a problem in social co- 
operation, a question in local geography, or the basis for 


248 RURAL EDUCATION 


some phase of the history of medicine and disease. 
Properly conceived, this phase of school work thus offers 
the rural teacher or curriculum-maker an opportunity to 
develop a modern course of study for rural children 
suited to their needs, taught in terms of their experiences, 
utilizing local resources, and :contributing to them 
through the many “‘leads”’ afforded by such work a real 
socializing experience. 

History, Civics, and Geography. — Local geography, 
local history, and community civics are valuable not 
only in the immediate questions that arise but also in the 
problems to which they lead. In general geography, 
especially when the human factor is stressed, in history 
which is treated as the history of things significant in 
society to-day, and in civics, which treats of man’s 
relations to men rather than the mechanics of govern- 
ment, there are abundant means of contributing to the 
particular needs of the rural child. We have found this 
child limited in interests, in breadth of view and in the 
scope of his social self. (Chapter VIII.) He has small 
access to racial resources in the form of human experience 
or in the problems men have faced in their earth control 
and relations to each other. These missing elements 
are possible fruits of the study of history, geography, and 
civics. They furnish problems whose solution leads the 
individual into a wide study of social relations, a better — 
understanding of group differences and a keener apprecia- 
tion of other ages, and the basic conditions of social 
stability and progress. 

History affords a vast panorama of man’s relation to 
man, of his struggles and defeats and ultimate readjust- 
ment and progress. Here the child may find presented 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES 249 


the origin and development of our present forms of 
associated living, including the family, the state, the 
community, the church, and the school. Each of these 
has a record. Each has resulted from the working of 
certain definite forces, has passed through many varia- 
tions, and has survived because it has served social ends. 
Different ages have witnessed different ideals and 
preferred different ends. The life of the rural child is 
a world of one social color. Institutions, customs, and 
social values pass almost unquestioned. From history 
he should get an enlarged vision of the meaning, prob- 
lems, and values of associated living. From the wealth 
of experience thus gained he should acquire a perspective 
from which to view his local life. He should have a basis 
for appreciating the worth of tried and established 
forms, and yet be prepared to evaluate them correctly 
and to criticize, control, and improve them. Instead of 
being submerged and bound by the accepted customs of 
his local group, his life should be enlarged. He should 
be prepared to profit by the racial experience in dealing 
with its human problem, and to bring such resources to 
bear upon each local question that from this enriched 
experience he may gain new ends, broader aims, more 
fundamental values, and a more open-minded and pro- 
gressive attitude. 

The individual faces the task of adjusting himself to 
his natural environment as well as to his social world 
and of contributing to progress by changing both for the 
better. Man’s relation to the physical world, his adjust- 
ment to its limitations, his mastery and use of its forces, 
is told to the child with innumerable variations in geogra- 
phy. From the study of this subject he may witness 


250 RURAL EDUCATION 


the conquest of Holland or the adjustment of the Chinese 
to their local limitations, and come to know the varied 
customs of the different races of the world. Seeing 
racial variations as a wise adjustment to earth demands, 
the child will then appreciate the origin of group charac- 
teristics, understand the naturalness of social differences, 
and realize the need of constant intercourse and readjust- 
ment in human relations. His own dependence upon 
others will be clear to him when he studies the sources 
which supply his daily needs. This appreciation of 
differences, understanding of causes, and sensing of 
world relations will furnish him a basis for intelligent 
and sympathetic social codperation. The rural child 
is ever face to face with the problem of earth domination 
and his comfort and satisfaction are dependent upon his 
ability to make physical conditions more hospitable to his 
wants. Abundant problems and opportunities for self- 
directed activity and control of means to ends are his. 
From this knowledge of the world-wide struggle to cope 
with nature in both the present and the past, he will 
discover new purposes, new possible satisfactions, and 
abundant suggestion for mastering his world. It will 
give him, as well, that experience essential to effective 
participation in the larger affairs of society as it faces 
problems of a better world mastery. 

Civies, properly treated, will produce those changes 
in social and civic attitudes and practices so necessary 
to a real “rurban’’ community and to the proper par- 
ticipation of rural folk in the larger social questions of the 
day. Isolation, conservatism, a spirit of social inde- 
pendence, a feeling of antagonism toward other groups, 
are not uncommon rural characteristics. Beginning 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES = 251 


with an active participation in the problems of com- 
munity life, and leading on to the actual inter-relatedness 
and codperation of all people in state, nation, and the 
world, civics may be used to bring home to the rural child 
a sense of his social membership and thus build those 
habits and attitudes essential to his education and to 
the best welfare of future rural .ife. 

Agriculture and Home-making. — What place have 
agriculture and home-making in the rural elementary 
school? The answer depends upon the purpose for 
which they are taught and the content selected. 

There is no place for these subjects in elementary 
education if they are to be used to develop a rural bias 
in the child, to promote adult occupational efficiency, to 
foster community progress directly, or to give preparation 
looking particularly toward a predetermined choice of 
occupation and later efficiency in it. It is evident from 
the many references to these studies in the quotations of 
the first three chapters that they are commonly so con- 
ceived. They are looked upon by many primarily as a 
means of developing rural-mindedness and of cultivating 
the skills so greatly needed by the farmer of to-day. 
Their introduction into the school is further advised 
because they furnish an approach to the social, hygienic 
and economic problems of the adult and because they are 
a means of increasing crop production and farm effi- 
ciency. All these benefits they may offer, but these re- 
sults must not become their aims, because such a con- 
ception considers the child a means of furthering group, 
vocational, or adult ends. 

There is, however, a large place for the experiences 
and problems arising in agriculture and home-making 


252 RURAL EDUCATION 


if their use is guided by the fundamenta: principles and 
purposes of elementary education. 

In the first place these rural activities should be taken 
into consideration because they are the child’s back- 
ground and constitute the fields in which and to which 
he will apply most of the school work that is applied. 
They must be most intimately related to all the early 
work in nature study, hygiene, civics, local geography 
and history, and industrial arts. Many of the later and 
larger problems in geography and history may originate 
in these fields. Likewise the more extensive projects in 
civics, hygiene, and industrial arts will lack reality unless 
intimately related to the local home community and 
occupational life. 

The belief that education is to promote growth, to bring 
about the most effective living now and here, rather 
than in some possible distant time and place, gives 
weight to the importance of agriculture and home-mak- 
ing in a child’s education. ‘To make the boy intelligent 
about his tasks in the garden and field, with pig, calf, 
and chicken; to make the girl intelligent about her cook- 
ing, house cleaning and laundering; to put meaning and 
value into these tasks; to make life more interesting and 
beautiful and children thereby somewhat more efficient — 
are all ultimately worth while and justifiable aims for 
the elementary school. 

But the returns to be gotten from the consideration of 
these topics are not limited to a little larger insight 
into the activities themselves. Such tasks, if properly 
treated, give the child an open door into a vastly larger 
life from which the significance of the immediate task 
may be seen in a new light. 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES ~— 253 


It is to be regretted that most of the work in agri- 
culture and home-making should have been introduced 
into the elementary school and into the life of the ele- 
mentary school child by those primarily interested in 
the adult problem of better farming. Boys’ and girls’ 
club work as now conducted contributes only a tithe of 
its possible educational value. Those who promote this 
type of work are often more concerned with the pig and 
the corn crop, the chickens and the hundreds of cans of 
tomatoes exhibited than with the boy and girl. An 
illustration of possibilities in this connection may be 
found in Slosson’s Creative Chemistry,! in which he gives 
a chapter on “Feeding the Soil.”’ No one can read this 
presentation and be content to evaluate a potato project 
in terms of bushels of potatoes. Such a procedure would 
strike one as actually exchanging a child’s birthright for 
a mess of pottage. 

If the various phases of an agricultural or home- 
making project were developed and treated as Slosson 
treats fertilizer, they would give the child not only a real 
appreciation of the complex world in which he lives and a 
sympathy with his many co-workers in other fields and 
places, but also a clearer grasp of farm life and its worth 
and significance to humanity. In a large way these 
questions serve to relate the child to the major tasks of 
men embracing the production of materials, their trans- 
formation into more useful forms and the creation of 
tools for mastering the world and adjusting conditions to 
man’s higher wants. Such studies teach an appreci- 
ation of applied science in many forms. They show more 
concretely than any other study the interdependence 


1Slosson, E. E. — Creative Chemistry, chapter 10 OE, 


254 RURAL EDUCATION 


of men. They give rise in a very vital connection, 
to a study of the social and working conditions of other 
groups and serve thereby to give a real acquaintance 
with the many social, industrial, and economic problems 
of modern life. There is thus a very large place for 
utilizing the experiences of farm and home in the ele- 
mentary education of rural children. 

Whether these experiences should be organized under 
a separate course does not seem so clear. In a large, 
well-organized consolidated school this might be best. 
In the one and two-teacher school it is assuredly not. 
There is a strong tendency to make a separate course 
of them for the sake of assuring them some attention. 
But this plan of adding separate courses for every new 
element is contrary to fundamental principles. Instead, 
those in positions of leadership should so reorganize 
the rural course of study that these features, which are 
so fundamental, may be an integral part of regular rural 
school work. Their maximum contribution can never 
be realized by being an adjunct to an old stereotyped cur- 
riculum. All the appropriate problems of home, farm 
and community should be given a place and should be 
so treated as to insure their maximum return to the child. 

Music and Art. — Much has been said about suiting 
the rural school curriculum to rural children. By this 
its advocates usually meant gardening, agriculture, 
cooking, sewing and manual training. Varied and many 
are the arguments to support this claim. 

If we are really concerned in developing schools that 
will serve the needs of rural children rather than adults, 
in their occupational interests, shall we not demand 
emphasis upon music and art? A many-sided interest 


APPLICATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES —=§ 255 


and a rich source of satisfaction are some of the fruits of 
education. One does not need to urge the value of 
music and art in promoting this end. It is readily 
granted. Neither is it necessary to contend that rural 
children have a right to this resource of civilization. 
They have. ‘To put the issue clearly it is only necessary 
to raise the question. But what chance has any rural 
child, save he who is exceptionally placed, to come in 
contact with good music and art, to have his power of 
appreciation developed, and to secure training when he 
possesses ability? The answer to this inquiry is obvious. 

What can the school do about it? To this the reply 
is not so easy. But at least we have a right to demand 
that every possible effort be put forth to provide these 
privileges for rural children as their right. 

The opportunity for this work is most inviting. The 
rural child is unaware of beauty and unawakened to 
rural possibilities. Yet rural life has had a fundamental 
place in literature and art as a casual study of the field of 
poetry, or a passing observation of the contents of an art 
museum, will readily show. By a study of these master 
works as they relate to his life the rural child would soon 
come to an appreciation of their meaning. Through the 
eyes of the artist he would see his own world anew and 
sense new values and new beauty in the commonplace. 
A desire to improve his surroundings through greater 
care in farm arrangement, in nature control, and in 
home building, and to realize his vision of his local life, 
would then come to him. From these efforts he would 
eventually develop a keener appreciation of those who 
serve within this field by creating works of art and by 
giving beauty to the common things of life. 


256 RURAL EDUCATION 


But literature, music, and art are universal modes of 
human expression. Their form and use vary with the 
field of their application. The child’s education here 
must lead from the local bearing of artistic efforts to 
their larger and more varied significance. The study of 
rural home architecture, home decoration, farming skills, 
and landscape art is all profitable. These subjects may 
become the basis of rural beauty. Unless such studies 
enlarge the child’s sense of values, however, to include all 
things artistic, all beautiful expressions and conceptions 
in literature, and all forms of music, they will have 
served him only in part. Fine arts, in their many forms 
and in their application to the world of industry and 
other human activities; philosophy, poetry, the many 
types of music, and the drama — each is a source of 
human satisfaction and human service. Each must add 
its quota to the breadth of the country child and to his 
meaning of life. He must sense a unity with those who 
find their self-expression and social service here, and 
learn to appreciate their work. From this a richer field 
of satisfaction, a larger conception of human life, and a 
broader social consciousness will result. 


CHAPTER XII 


IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION 
AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS OF THE 
RURAL SCHOOL 


I. RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 


Necessity of a Larger Unit. — The magnitude of the 
rural problem and the dearth of rural resources, which 
education must supply, demand in the field of organiza- 
tion, a unit larger than the local district. The problems 
to be met and the needs for which the school is respon- 
sible are too great to be handled effectively by a few 
families. With a county unit under the directive control 
of one administrator whose vision transcends the de- 
mands of local agriculture and economic needs, it is 
possible to secure lecturers of ability, to place them at 
the strategic centers of the county, and thus provide 
advantages for the rural group which can never be 
secured so long as each district is isolated and independ- 
ent. The same service can be rendered in the realm of 
music. Through similar effort of a codperative nature 
concert companies might carry to rural folk the pleasure 
now denied them. County organization does much to 
facilitate traveling motion pictures.! It further pro- 
motes the exchange of victrola records, lantern slides, 


1See the Biennial Report of the Bureau of Community Service. Bulletin, 
by W. C. Crosby, available from the Department of Education, Raleigh, 
N.C. 


257 


258 RURAL EDUCATION 


and library resources. The advantages open to others 
are thus brought directly to rural people by this larger 
unit of organization. 

Fallacy of Arguments for Open-country Consolida- 
tion. — Within the local school area provision for these 
evident rural needs can be best made by a consolidation 
of small units. The advantages of such a movement 
have been frequently and specifically defined. The 
larger resources thus made available, libraries, scientific 
laboratories, shops, auditoriums, and physical equip- 
ment are much needed tools for the educative process. 
The added social contacts, the multiplication of points 
of view, the opportunities for recreation and games, the 
possible addition to the curricula not only in music, art 
and industrial studies, but in the basic school subjects 
as well, all serve still further to supply the needs of the 
rural child. But since we are interested primarily in his 
fullest growth and in introducing him into a larger social 
membership, consolidation in the open country or in 
‘“rural-minded”’ villages has obvious limitations and 
handicaps. Far more consistent with present rural 
needs and the demands of modern society is the Com- 
munity High School plan of Illinois, where town and 
country unite for better educational service to both. A 
consideration of all the factors in the case may some- 
times attest the wisdom of open-country consolidation, 
but to seek such a result for the express purpose of keep- 
ing boys and girls on the farm, of freeing them from the 
“evil influences” of the city, of maintaining a class soli- 
darity against the inroads of the city’s attractions is 
entirely contrary to the principles herein presented. 
The transporation of country children to town for their 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 259 


schooling may have some detrimental results upon food 
resources. It may further deplete the farming popula- 
tion. But for the child himself such a policy involves 
little that is harmful and much that is good. In the 
town he comes in contact with more children, children 
of different habits, customs, and interests. Here he 
faces new standards and new ways of thinking. Here 
are social and physical resources that the country does 
not and cannot afford. In this environment, socially 
more varied, more inclusive in its interests, more modern 
in its practices, more fluid in its standards, more freely 
in touch with the larger affairs of men, the rural child 
will find a larger opportunity for growth.! 

Bearing upon the Church Situation. — These princi- 
ples of social relation have implications for rural and 
village churches as well as for schools. The influence 
of the growing consciousness of social unity among rural 
folk upon their religion is given by Warren H. Wilson 
when in speaking of codperation among farmers he adds: 
‘“‘As soon as the farming population is saturated with the 
idea, which these farmers fully understand who have 
prospered by codperation, the religious message in these 
territories will be a new message of brotherhood.” 2 
But if social relations were really understood, this mes- 
sage of brotherhood would not be limited in scope to 
rural people. At present, however, church relations 
between town and country are as lacking as those be- 
tween town and country schools. 


1It should be noted here that the frequent criticism of farmers and others 
against the town because of its ‘‘morals’”’ has little validity in this connection. 
Any town which is morally bad for country children is bad for city children 
also and should be cleaned up and reformed for the sake of society at large.— 
The Editor. 

2 Wilson, Warren H. — The Evolution of the Country Community, p. 155. 


260 RURAL EDUCATION 


Mistaken Tendencies from High Sources. — Ten- 
dencies to misconceive the purpose and place of rural 
elementary education are not infrequent from high 
sources. In planning a state organization any concep- 
tion like that of Cubberley’s which unites rural and 
agricultural education, for example, is fundamentally 
wrong and misleading. Rural elementary education 
is first elementary — first elemental and basic — and 
then rural. It is the problem of the elementary school 
in a rural setting. So, too, is that of the Bureau of 
Education at Washington, in proposing that the rural 
elementary school be improved along agricultural lines.? 
The elementary school in an agricultural setting has no 
unique responsibility for agriculture. There is no valid 
reason why it should be ‘“‘improved along agricultural 
lines.””?’ Such conclusions are expressions of the belief 
that the rural elementary school is an institution for 
agricultural and community service, whereas it is in 
reality an elementary school and must render the general 
service of such an institution. Its problems, as formerly 
shown, are the problems of general growth and social 
membership and not those of a particular group or 
occupation. 

This tendency to think of rural elementary education 
as different from other elementary education, that is, as 
more industrial and vocational, finds its counterpart on 
the secondary school level in the development of general 
high schools for the few and vocational high schools or 
continuation schools for the many. This idea ap- 


1 Cubberley, E. P. — State and County Educational Reorganization, Chap- 
ter I, p. 31. 

2A Manual of Educational Legislation. U.S. Bureau of Education, Bul- 
letin, 1919, No, 4, p. 7. 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 261 


proaches the dual system of Germany and finds its most 
striking expression in Wisconsin, where the state organi- 
zation provides a separate board in charge of vocational 
education. Yet it must be apparent to all that voca- 
tional education is more than technique and skill in some 
limited field. The demands of individual growth and 
social membership emphasize the need of a more generous 
general education beyond the elementary school than can 
possibly be secured in a strictly vocational atmosphere. 
Moreover, it is imperative for the welfare of democracy 
to develop a social understanding between groups, and 
this comes largely from the free intermingling of children 
during adolescent years. For the rural group this larger 
opportunity is especially important. 

The natural isolation of the farmer from other types 
of occupations and professions, and the cultural needs of 
rural folk indicate an advantage to be gained, also, in 
uniting the state university and the agricultural college. 
Here the future farmer comes in contact with a wider 
scope of activities and a richer cultural life. Here many 
of the interests so neglected in present rural life find 
encouragement. Here, in brief, develops a larger social 
consciousness between the farmer of the future and those 
destined for other occupations. 


II THE RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AS RELATED 
TO THE COMMUNITY 


The Evaluation of Suggested Service to the Com- 
munity. — The rural school is not a cloister, isolated 
from community life. Yet it is an institution with a 
specific function for which it was set apart. Just what, 
then, should be its relationship to the community? 


262 RURAL EDUCATION 


In Part I various objectives were suggested concern- 
ing the relation of the school to adult occupational and 
community life. These suggested purposes parallel very 
closely the proposed relations of the school to the child. 
The vast scope and detail of the rural problem as it 
appeared to those who first became conscious of rural 
life limitations were overwhelming. Rural home con- 
ditions, rural vocational practices, rural mental atti- 
tudes, the rural church, rural recreation and rural 
social life, all rose up before these rural leaders chal- 
lenging attention. The objectives and scope of the 
hoped-for ruralized country school which was to pro- 
vide these deficiencies were not clearly defined. School 
work was, however, to be closely related to, and de- 
pendent upon, these other rural conditions. The ap- 
parent answer was that the school, as a community 
institution, was responsible for them all. This assump- 
tion, that the child is foreordained to be a member 
of the rural group, makes its problems his in a very 
peculiar sense. Service to its many needs is then 
seen quite directly as service to him. To keep the 
most progressive adults in the country will strengthen 
his group, will enrich its social and cultural life and 
provide for it worthy leaders. The school that increases 
the rural income, increases likewise his resources. If 
he is to be responsible for feeding the nation, the school 
that increases the corn crop five bushels an acre helps 
him directly to meet his future obligations. If its insti- 
tutional limitations, its backward standards and prac- 
tices, its social and cultural limitations are to become his 
load, his permanent limitation or opportunity, then 
there is not much harm in directing his early thinking 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 263 


and the resources of the school to their immediate 
solution. 

But, as has been repeatedly observed, none of these 
assumptions are valid. The child is by birth and physi- 
cal residence a member of the group, but its limitations 
must not be made his. Its problems are not primarily 
his to solve. There is danger, moreover, in considering 
the elementary school the servant of the local com- 
munity, responsible for meeting its many local ‘‘needs,”’ 
as a reading of the quotations upon this point will show. 
It tends to accentuate the differences already existing 
between communities. Such a school would “provide 
primarily for agriculture’ in order to serve community 
needs. Effort would be made to discover what the 
farmer and his wife must do all their lives and then erect 
such problems into a curriculum for the child. This 
cannot be done without limiting the service of the school 
to the child. 

Relation of the School and Community. — It must be 
admitted, however, that the rural school on the whole 
has dealt too little with these near-by problems. An 
ideal rural school would be a very effective influence 
upon community life. One cannot make a child a 
member of society simply by teaching general principles 
or dealing in abstract questions of social codperation, 
social justice, and social responsibility. Education for 
citizenship is an education in the formation of these 
essential habits in local fields. Social service is first of 
all service to the local group. Codperation is codpera- 
tion with one’s fellows upon their common tasks. Only 
in this way can civic education be more than empty 
words. But again this is but part of the end. These 


264 RURAL EDUCATION 


local problems are a starting point, a concrete instance, 
the fuller meaning and implication of which are beyond 
the local community and the rural group. The idea to 
keep clearly in mind is that the primary purpose of the 
school is to further the development of the child and not 
primarily to serve the local community. Community 
improvement furthers the child’s opportunities by pro- 
viding him with an environment richer in interests, in 
social contacts and in resources of growth. But what- | 
soever is done through the elementary school to improve 
the community must not sacrifice the opportunities of 
the child. It must be done primarily to further his 
growth. Its benefit to the community is a secondary 
result. What type of community life would best suit 
the purposes of the growing child? What type of com- 
munity life should the rural teacher, as guardian of the 
child’s interests, strive to realize? These are the essen- 
tial questions whose answers will be briefly attempted 
here. 

Extent of the Community. — In the analysis of the 
preceding chapter rural and urban relations were found 
to be far from satisfactory. Selfishness, misunderstand- 
ings, indifference or suspicion, and absence of mutual 
respect and coédperation characterized their associations. 
This situation has given rise to two schools of thinking 
in the field of community organization, which are clearly 
described by Galpin.!. The conclusions from the present 
study on the nature and demands of the good life and 
the needs of the rural group as presented in chapters 
five and six support Galpin’s belief that the ruralist is 
wrong. The opportunities of a purely rural community 

1 Galpin, C. J. — Rural Life, pp. 62 ff. 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 265 


life are limited. The dearth of varied interests found 
within the group, its limited social contacts, its meager 
equipment, its restricted cultural resources, its retarded 
standards, and its isolation from the many other forces 
and forms of life which the child must come to know and 
with which he must codperate, all demand that educa- 
tional effort be spent in realizing this larger inter-group 
relation and thereby serving the rural child. Organiza- 
tions of every type it may be noted in passing should 
strive to realize this larger community relationship. 
Clubs for country women only, a rural Y. M. C. A., a 
grange that refuses membership to those who, though 
not farmers, could serve the farming-group abundantly, 
all work against the best rural progress and social wel- 
fare. Such organizations need to adjust themselves to 
the larger community relations of country people. 

We reach, then, from this approach, the same conclu- 
sion that we came to in our earlier discussion. The 
solution to the rural problem lies in enlarging rural social 
and community life through the integration of town and 
country peoples and cultures. From an intelligent and 
sympathetic codperation of these social groups will come 
to both, and especially to the country, a richer life and 
a more rapid progress. 

Type of Local Community. — This demand for a larger 
social life in no wise implies that local community life 
should be ignored, or that effort to create a community 
sense and pride or to develop local resources should be 
discontinued. Local unity, local initiative and resource- 
fulness, local pride and a measured independence are all 
profitable, but in obtaining them the controlling principle 
should be unlimited growth for the child and a larger 


266 RURAL EDUCATION 


social consciousness for the adult. Anything that 
sacrifices these is wrong. 

What shall be the nature of this local social organiza- 
tion, assuming that it is to be as inclusive as conditions 
permit and favorable to a free interchange of ideas and 
culture between groups? The tendency to limit rural 
interests to the occupational problems of the rural group 
and to place the emphasis within this occupational field 
upon the problems of production, sets a serious task in 
_ rural social and community building. It is not sufficient 
in organizing rural life, to use as a basic principle the 
problems of production and occupation only. The 
Farmers’ Union of the South and the Farmers’ Equity 
of the West which are organized specifically for the 
economic advancement of farmers cannot serve as a 
basis for broad community organization. The strong 
effort to organize country people fully under the Farm 
Bureau movement centering around a small phase of 
the rural life problem is shortsighted also.1 Neither 
does the organization of rural youth into clubs with 
vocational and economic purposes contribute sufficiently 
to their many “‘needs.”” The right type of local organi- 
zation must include in its purpose all the interests essen- 
tial to a satisfactory community life. It should grow 
out of a felt need and may specialize upon particular 
problems from time to time. But in so far as the 
teacher’s efforts are concerned, the welfare of the children 
and the larger life of the adult demand that she strive to 
broaden the purpose of local organization, to make its 
service more inclusive, and to set forces to work which 


1 Status and Results of County Agency Work, U. 8S. Department of Agri- 
culture. Circular 16, pp. 9-10, 1917-18. 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 267 


will ultimately enrich the interests and activities of the 
group. 

Each of these many interests finding expression within 
the community organization, must serve as a means of 
leading the local group into a study of the national or 
world aspects of the problem undertaken. Local issues 
must be seen in their larger setting. The adults will be 
most concerned with establishing contacts with peoples, 
organizations, and institutions that can assist them in 
their agricultural problems. Lectures upon problems 
of production, traveling organizers in the field of market- 
ing, specialists upon plant and animal diseases, will bring 
their contributions from the larger field. Discussions 
of local agricultural or road problems should lead to a 
study of transportation from the state and national 
viewpoint. ‘These should be connected with the prob- 
lems of communication and association as basic princi- 
ples in a democratic social order. When the real ‘‘rur- 
ban” people, instead of the artificial rural group, meet 
together to discuss the problems of the farmer and the 
town resident, there will be varying points of view, ideas 
drawn from different experiences, suggestions of broader 
scope and discussion stimulating new and bigger prob- 
lems and further interests. In this enlarged commu- 
nity, including all of common interest, some of the people, 
or all of them at different times, will center upon different 
problems. They will study these in the local setting 
and follow them in their many ramifications. They will 
reconstruct their ideas of local needs and plans in the 
light of this larger knowledge. Health, under the leader- 
ship of rural doctors and nurses, will acquaint rural 
folk with modern practices, modern standards and 


268 RURAL EDUCATION 


consequent rural needs. Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls 
will bring to the consideration of their community the 
new conceptions and new values of boy and girl life, the 
rights of a child to leisure and play and the educative 
influence of group activity. Literary societies, music 
clubs, Red Cross committees, home improvement asso- 
ciations, recreational organizations, each will emphasize 
its interests, form its contacts, call attention to its needs, 
reach out for ideas and means of solving its problems 
and contributing through its efforts to an enriched 
community life and a larger social service. 

Just how this community organization should be 
constructed, how its various interests should find repre- 
sentation, what relation the parts should have to the 
whole, is not here in question. From the underlying 
principles of ‘‘the good life’ and especially as this is 
related to the primary task of a rural elementary teacher, 
the results sought are essential and an enlargement of 
the social group, a mingling of various points of view 
questions, and the codperation of all concerned upon 
common tasks will undoubtedly be conducive to indi- 
vidual and social improvement. ‘The local life must be 
enriched to include all the interests essential to a satis- 
fying life. The adult as well as the child must be kept 
in touch with progress elsewhere and with other oppor- 
tunities and means of growth. 


III. THE RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AS RELATED 
TO VOCATIONAL PROBLEMS 


The relation of the rural elementary school to adult 
vocational demands is similar to its relation to general 
community building. In the light ef the school’s fun- 


ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY RELATIONS 269 


damental task, we cannot agree with those who would 
make it a distinct servant of vocational ends. <A casual 
survey of the proposed objectives recorded under this 
heading in Part I will show the bias that may arise when 
child needs are not clearly defined and kept in view. 
Some would subvert the course of study of the elemen- 
tary school so as to help solve the farmer’s economic 
problems. Others would direct its service to aid him in 
providing a larger food supply for the nation. The 
teachers, in the opinion of one, might properly exert 
themselves to increase the corn crop five bushels per 
acre or to “‘be instrumental in adding millions of dollars 
to the wealth of the country by increasing the yield of 
corn, oats, and other crops.” They might secure better 
salaries for themselves or a better school support by so 
doing. But improvement in technical occupational effi- 
ciency is the problem of the vocational expert. School 
support should not depend upon such vocational service. 
A larger food supply, a larger rural income, or an in- 
creased salary for the teacher that involved such a 
sacrifice of child rights is shameful exploitation. 

In analyzing the rural occupational situation in rela~ 
tion to the demands of “‘the good life,”’ we found certain 
specific needs. (Chapter VII.) These conditions were 
particularly limiting to the rural child whose life is 
immersed in this activity. The school, primarily in- 
terested in child welfare, will still find much reason for 
dealing with problems of rural occupational life, but 
not so much with increased incomes and occupational 
efficiency. It will profit more from developing among 
farmers a larger conception of the possibilities in agricul- 
ture, by giving a fairer evaluation to the other non- 


270 RURAL EDUCATION 


occupational aspects of rural life, by freeing women 
from household drudgery and by improving the home 
and enriching its contribution. The rights of the child 
must be recognized and not sacrificed to his economic 
return, and he must have more freedom to participate in 
this codperative undertaking. A deeper consciousness on 
the part of the local community of its broader social 
relations and a larger opportunity to participate in these 
activities, would profit both adult and child. When we 
enrich the farmer’s interests, adjust his scale of values, 
and cause him to develop a social consciousness about his 
work we increase the child’s opportunities. The child 
absorbs these new influences as he does his present 
attitudes. The life that now narrows him because of 
its constant presence would serve as well, when changed 
in type, to provide him with this large view of life and 
his relation to it. 


CHAPTER XIII 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL ELEMENTARY 
TEACHER 


THE preparation of any teacher should be a prepara- 
tion to meet certain definite problems in such a way as 
to attain certain definite ends. The ends to be attained 
depend upon the nature of the individual and of the 
desirable social life. The problems to be met grow out 
of the situation in which the work of the teacher is to be 
done and are the products of the limitations and short- 
comings of the local environment. The task of the 
rural elementary school within the school itself, in rela- 
tion to rural social life, and in its bearing upon the 
occupational aspects of rural living, has been presented 
in preceding chapters. What now is the nature of the 
teacher’s problems? What should be her qualifications 
and the nature of the preparation or training which will 
enable her to render the service the rural situation de- 
mands? And what type of teacher-training organi- 
zation is needed to give this preparation? 

Problems of the Rural Elementary Teacher. — As 
basically contended throughout this discussion, the 
purpose of the rural elementary school is the purpose of 
elementary education anywhere. The school is merely 
an elementary school in a rural setting. The problem 
of the rural teacher then is the common problem of 


elementary teachers in general, that is, of freeing the 
: 271 


272 RURAL EDUCATION 


capacity of children through a progressive socialized 
growth. 

This task has three aspects which make three specific 
demands upon the teacher. First, she must know the 
characteristics and conditions of ‘‘the good life” in both 
its social and individual aspects. These will furnish 
her the goals of teaching effort. This involves a knowl- 
edge and command of social resources and of means 
sufficient to realize these ends. Second, she must under- 
stand rural conditions. She must know rural people — 
and appreciate their interests, their mental attitudes, 
and their needs. Third, she must have acquired that 
professional skill which will enable her to meet the 
situation, to take child life where it is and, by means of 
the resources at hand either in the environment or in 
herself, to realize in children that rich growth which 
should be theirs. 

All teachers need the best of professional preparation. 
The rural teacher, like all others, needs to know well the 
field of her future service. There is much justification 
for the special study of the rural problem, but this need 
when recognized at all has generally been overempha- 
sized in the training of rural teachers, to the sacrifice of 
other preparation. Above all, the rural teacher needs 
to have the richest possible knowledge of the present, 
and the largest possible command of racial experiences 
and social resources. 

In all her work the rural teacher is strongly influenced 
by environmental conditions. In some respects we 
have found the rural environment supplying unusual 
opportunities to the rural child for self-direction and 
activity. The complexity of agriculture as an occupa- 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 273 


tion and its many problems involving questions of 
science, business, and technical skills, are possible ex- 
periences for him, while his close association with adults, 
the early responsibility put upon him for initiative and 
judgment, and his vital relation to the many aspects of 
community life, offer numerous opportunities for self- 
expression and growth. 

In other respects we found rural life limited in essential 
conditions and resources. The needs of the rural child 
are many. His play life is greatly neglected and no 
organization is doing much to improve it. His health 
habits and sanitary conditions need attention, yet no 
organized agency is exclusively emphasizing their care. 
The educational contributions of motion pictures, mu- 
seums, libraries, churches, Sunday schools, and theaters 
are either missing or generally inferior in their service to 
the rural child. On the whole, social resources are not 
made available to his use. In his social contacts he is 
limited in number and variety. Rural isolation prevents 
him from mingling easily with other groups and he has 
a limited opportunity for knowing their conditions and 
needs. The task of socializing his thinking and of fur- 
nishing him a knowledge of social life in general is thus 
vastly increased because of these deficiencies. 

The teacher’s work is made more difficult not only 
because of the limitation of rural resources and the 
meagerness of social life but by rural conservatism as 
well. The rural mental atmosphere by which the child 
is surrounded is weighted against this growing, expand- 
ing life and against the breadth of interest, knowledge, 
and sympathy essential to progress and to effective 
membership in a modern social order. There are also 


274 RURAL EDUCATION 


the limitations of the school as an institution and of the 
present educational personnel upon whom the teacher 
must depend and with whom she must codperate. 

As a result of the forces that have controlled the selec- 
tion of rural teachers during the past half century, rural 
schools have been taught largely by the young, the 
inexperienced, and the untrained, or by those who, 
because of inability, were not invited into a field pro- 
fessionally and economically more attractive. This 
handicap is increased by the fact that the rural school 
situation offers greater difficulties and limitations than 
city school teaching. The presence of several grades, 
the lack of equipment, limited supervision, short terms, 
and irregular attendance all add profoundly to the 
teacher’s task. What type of teacher is needed to meet 
this situation? 

Type of Teacher and Qualifications Needed. — In 
discussing the qualifications of this prospective rural 
teacher rural leaders seem to have been most impressed 
by the need for knowledge of the local situation and for 
ability to come into sympathetic contact with rural folk. 
For some this has seemed the supreme test of her fitness 
and one which could be fulfilled only by rural birth and 
rearing. The arguments for this have been varied. 
Some have demanded it in order that rural chiidren 
might be restrained from migrating to the city, or that 
they might be taught to appreciate their environment 
and thereby become content to remain in it. The fol- 
lowing quotations reflect these purposes. 

Edward Hyatt, formerly State Superintendent of 
California, in discussing the question of ‘“How not to 
train rural teachers” before the N. E. A. in 1916 said: 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 275 


But what can they (girls from the city trained in normal schools in 
the city) do for rural children? What influences do they exert 
toward making them happy in their rural environment, toward 
teaching them to appreciate and enjoy rural pleasures, toward 
inducing them to stay on the farm?! 

He (the teacher) must be able to take the rural child in its own 
little world and lead it along the pathway of life, directing its native 
adaptabilities, sentiments, and powers, and there develop in the 
child breast a sympathy with its environment, and in the child mind 
an understanding of nature’s ways — then, once awakened to the 
surpassing beauties of the rural environments, the American boy and 
girl will no longer be in danger of deserting the farm for the man- 
made glitter of the city. 

If the board of trustees in any rural district really wishes to unite in 
supporting an effective back-to-the-farm movement, let them offer 
to some country-reared graduate of the agricultural college a salary of 
about twice or three times the amount usually paid. After a few 
terms of school taught by such a person, the good effects on the rural 
uplift will most certainly reveal themselves.’ 


While we cannot accept the motive which seems to 
have guided these writers, there are other reasons funda- 
mental to child growth for requiring the rural teacher to 
have an intimate knowledge and sympathy with country 
life. Rural folk are in a measure more sensitive than 
urban people. They are less accustomed to differences 
in manners, in dress, and in speech, and more ready to 
criticize departures from the established practice. 
Leadership and service among them depends upon one’s 
ability to understand their ways of thinking and other 
prejudices and to speak their language. These char- 
acteristics are wearing upon one who has not become 
accustomed to them through years of experience. The 
contentment in rural life that is basic to a sympathetic 


1 Hyatt, E. — ‘‘How Not to Train Rural Teachers,’ NV. H. A. Proceedings, 
1916, p. 1026. 

2 Foght, H. W. — The Rural Teacher and His Work, pp. 262-3. 

8 McKeever, W. A. — Farm Boys and Girls, p. 126. 


276 RURAL EDUCATION 


attitude and length of service is not an easy acquire- 
ment. In addition to this, the wealth of rural possi- 
bilities is not realized. Rural folk are isolated from 
many social resources. The teacher should be able to 
comprehend the means at hand, to sense the opportuni- 
ties for growth, and be able to make the best of this 
limited material. The ability to realize a larger, more 
satisfying life for the child in this situation depends 
upon an intimate knowledge of rural affairs. All these 
factors, and many others primarily germane to child 
welfare, put a premium upon rural experience and upon 
rural birth and rearing. 

If we consider, however, the contribution that is to 
be made to country life and to country children, rather 
than the conditions under which it must be given, there 
is some advantage in having as teacher of the rural school 
a person bred in town or city. The larger acquaintance 
of such an individual with other forms of life, the fact 
that she has become accustomed to doing things in 
different ways, and that she represents the thinking of 
another group would tend helpfully to disturb the local 
customs and to enrich rural life with new ideas. Her 
acquaintance with other forms of social service and other 
standards and practices would tend to raise questions 
and stimulate reforms. She could more easily make real 
to the children the distant social customs and manners 
of living. This might serve to take the child from the 
rural fold, but he has a right to know of these other 
worlds and to seek them if he chooses. In her way such 
a teacher would be a real socializing force, not only in 
bringing new ideas to the Iccal group and giving larger 
opportunities to rural children, but by blending in some 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 277 


measure the interests of town and country. The teacher 
of rural birth and experience has much to learn of the 
rest of the world. The city girl on the other hand must 
know about the country, its people and problems; appre- 
ciate its opportunities and satisfactions; and be con- 
secrated to its improvement, especially to the welfare of 
its children. In seeking teachers of rural knowledge 
and sympathy we must bear in mind that the rural 
elementary school demands more than a rural-minded 
person who can teach rural people about rural things. 
This enlargement of rural life opportunity is a funda- 
mental need. 

There are, then, two solutions to the question of who 
shall teach in a rural school. We may choose a girl of 
urban experience, who possesses many of the qualities 
that would be good for rural life, and attempt to give her 
the needed rural point of view. Or we may take a rural 
girl who possesses this intimate rural acquaintance so 
essential to success, and give her the breadth and re- 
sources that will enable her to make a real contribution 
to rural children. The latter seems at present to be the 
easier task. Burnham’s statement, made of those who 
are to prepare rural teachers, seems to apply with equal 
force to rural teachers themselves. ‘The observation 
of the writer is that, while there are exceptions, the best 
foundation for this specific preparation is country breed- 
ing — at least through childhood and youth — enough 
to establish a permanent understanding of and love for 
country folks, young and old.’’! The fact that such a 
choice is deemed wise, however, is a reflection upon our 


1 The Preparation of Rural Teachers. U.S. Bureau of Education, Bul- 
letin, 1918, No. 27, p. 38. 


278 RURAL EDUCATION 


general social understanding and unity. With the inte- 
gration of both town and country and a socialization of 
conditions, ideals and practices in keeping with their 
common welfare, such a limitation should not be neces- 
sary and would not prove best. 

Objectives Advanced for the Preparation of Rural 
Teachers. — There seems to be but small doubt that 
there should be some differentiation in the preparation 
of rural teachers. Burnham’s study just referred to 
shows how rapidly this tendency for specialized training 
has been growing in recent years.. The nature of this 
differentiation varies in the different institutions in 
keeping with the leader’s conception of the purpose and 
task of the rural elementary school and its teachers. 

In the discussion of special needs in the preparation 
of the rural teacher, there is again special emphasis upon 
giving her the proper point of view, affording her know]- 
edge of country conditions and country people and de- 
veloping in her the ability to meet some of these immedi- 
ate local needs. ‘‘The new type of country teacher must 
have special training for her special work — training 
that will give her a knowledge of country things, country 
people, country needs: a sympathy with them, and a love 
and appreciation of them.’ 1 Some emphasize her ability 
to make rural life attractive to the young. Others think 
that the “rural teachers of the present day need espe- 
cially to be taught how to present the newer and more 
practical subjects, such as agriculture, manual training, 
and domestic science.”’ 2? This rural teacher needs, ac- 
cording to Monahan, ‘‘in place of some of the academic 


1 Joyner, J. Y. — ‘‘ Rural Education,” N. HZ. A. Proceedings, 1916, p. 274. 
2 Betts & Hall — Better Rural Schools, p. 144. 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 279 


subjects of secondary and collegiate grade, additional 
courses in natural and physical sciences, particularly in 
their applications, and in nature study, elementary agri- 
culture, domestic economy, sanitation, rural economics, and 
rural sociology.” 1 Another concludes for a _ similar 
reason that, ‘“The ideal preparation for a teacher in the 
rural school is a complete course in a first-class agri- 
cultural college, with the inclusion of a few terms’ work 
in the educational subjects.” 2 Where the teacher is 
held largely responsible for community problems and 
the school is looked upon primarily as a community 
servant, the following conclusion is given: “This dis- 
tinctive training should give the teacher the power to 
answer the call of the rural community and the interests 
of country life will determine what should be emphasized 
in the country school and consequently what should be 
emphasized most in the rural teacher’s special prepara- 
tion.” > The next quotation, evidently guided by a 
similar conception of the rural teacher’s work, gives her 
special needs in more detail. 

This course for rural school teachers should comprehend a first- 
hand knowledge of country-life conditions, ...sanitation, water 
supply, the planning and reconstructing of houses, the laying-out of 
grounds, and labor-saving in the home. It should consider ways and 
means of taking social situations where they are and elevating them 
to where they should be. It should train the teacher in the organiza- 
tion and conduct of meetings, in making and carrying out literary 
programs, in utilizing music and the motion pictures in the school and 
home. The machinery of county organizations should be handled 


and political and civic problems given prominence. There should be 
courses dealing with farm mathematics and accounting, rural 


1 Monahan, A. C. — Training Courses for Rural Teachers. U.S. Bureau 
of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No..2, p. 9. 

2 McKeever, W. A. — Farm Boys and Girls, p. 125. 

* Mutchler and Craig — Course of Study for the Preparation of Rural School 
Teachers. U.S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1912, pp. 8-9. 


280 RURAL EDUCATION 


mechanics, the fundamentals of domestic and agricultural chemistry, 
applied biology, problems of lighting, heating, ... The class of 
students should be drawn largely from the country.! 


This focusing of attention upon the local interests, 
community and vocational needs and local differences 
in type of mind, social customs, and sources of satisfac- 
tion, has emphasized the necessity of ruralizing the 
country teacher’s preparation. From this point of view 
the newer subjects of agriculture, manual training, and 
household arts, which to some are the core of the rural- 
school curriculum, naturally recelve emphasis and at- 
tention. Rural sociology and rural economics which 
prepare the teacher to understand and serve the com- 
munity interests are also emphasized. This preparation 
for local problems is to be secured, if necessary, at a 
sacrifice to her more general or “academic” training. 
The specific subjects are to be ruralized. Farm readers, 
farm arithmetic, rural literature and rural art, rural recre- 
ation, rural sanitation, local geography and history are all 
included in the training provided for the rural teacher. 

Criticism of These Objectives. — In the light of our 
analysis of the rural-life situation and the rural teacher’s 
task, some of these proposals for the preparation of the 
rural teaching force are obviously shortsighted and 
narrow. ‘They are expressions of a false conception of 
the rural elementary school. The rural elementary 
school teacher is not responsible for “inducing the rural 
child to stay on the farm,”’ nor for so directing his growth 
that he will not “desert the farm for the man-made 
glitter of the city.”’ It is not her task so to teach agri- 
culture that it will increase the corn crop five bushels 

1 Chamberlain, A. H. — N. E. A. Proceedings, 1914, p. 328. 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 281 
per acre, or ‘‘to instruct them in agriculture so that an 
improvement is readily seen in the field crops, and flocks 
and herds, and the home life and the neighborhood.”’ 
Neither is she to be master of all the many occupational, 
social, and community problems of the adult. The 
interests of country life do not determine what should be 
emphasized in the country school and they do not deter- 
mine what should be emphasized most in the preparation 
of the rural teacher. Her task is to make possible for a 
group of children the fullness of growth which is their 
birthright and to use local resources, improve local 
limitations, remove local handicaps, and supply social 
and child ‘‘needs’”’ in the local situation so that this social 
heritage may be theirs. Instead of serving the local 
community merely in its limited economic interests she 
is serving society as a whole. She is responsible for 
socializing the children and the adults of the local group, 
broadening their interests, increasing their opportuni- 
ties for satisfaction, developing a common culture, and 
furthering the social interaction and codperation essen- 
tial to the stability and progress of a democracy. In all 
this she needs a knowledge of rural conditions and prob- 
lems, sympathy with rural life, and skill in adjusting 
herself to the rural type of mind. But the rural-born 
teacher has much of this. What she needs is a larger 
knowledge of social life and of its problems and purposes 
as a basis for evaluating the local situation. To seek 
this local knowledge at a sacrifice of other essential 
teaching powers is wrong. 

Fundamental Objectives. — Professional Knowledge 
and Skill. In addition to this acquaintance with 
local conditions the rural teacher needs professional 


282 RURAL EDUCATION 


preparation and skill. The fact that she has to work 
practically alone without supervision, with meager 
teaching equipment, and under the extra burden of 
many grades, makes it important that she have unusual 
professional skill. On the whole there will be slight 
differentiation in this aspect of the teacher’s work. 
Rural children are true to type and behave in keeping 
with the laws of human nature. These fundamental 
principles and most of their applications will apply with — 
equal force to any teacher’s task. Since, however, 
teaching is an art involving a wise application of these 
laws to particular situations, as well as a knowledge of 
general workings, the professional preparation of the 
rural teacher must fit her to meet specific situations. 
The training of the rural teacher will vary somewhat 
therefore from that of other teachers. Wise application 
of the principles of psychology and of classroom manage- 
ment to the rural situation must be carefully sought. 
There is, however, no justification for differentiating 
courses in education in any large measure unless the de- 
tatls and devices peculiar to rural education are considered 
the essentials of the course. Observation and practice 
teaching should be experienced partly in the graded city 
school and partly in the strictly rural school. From the 
former the prospective teacher gains a knowledge of 
how principles may be applied in a given situation and. 
in the rural schools she finds different conditions demand- 
ing other applications. Graded schools possess certain 
advantages and improvements which make advanced 
practices possible. These will give her suggestions. To 
limit her preparation largely to rural experience is to 
limit her professional knowledge and vision. 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 283 


Resources and Vision. The second problem for 
the rural teacher is that of becoming acquainted with 
the characteristics and conditions of ‘‘the good life.” 
She needs to know the great wealth of our accumulated 
social experience by means of which the child is to find 
| himself, to become attuned to modern social living, and 
to acquire the power to attain his ends and make his 
contribution to society. Here is the great need of the 
rural child and also the great need of the rural teacher. 
Instead of over-emphasizing the technique of local 
adjustment, we must face the task of giving prospective 
teachers this broader outlook, this knowledge of world 
affairs, this acquaintance with other peoples, other con- 
ditions, other standards, and other interests. Charged 
with such a preparation the teacher would be prepared 
to see these larger possibilities in rural life, to discover 
the larger rural needs, and to furnish all the vision and 
stimuli and social progress possible. Foght, who senses 
this need of rural folk, says that ‘‘a broad measure of 
academic culture should, therefore, be considered a first 
essential to all rural teaching success.”’! Miss Carney 
states that ‘‘a broader outlook is the greatest need of 
the country teacher’’;? and Coffman concludes that, 
“The ideally trained country school teacher is she who 
brings to her pupils both breadth of contact with larger 
interests, and the sympathetic understanding which 
comes from intensive study of concrete problems of 
country life.’’* 








1Foght, H. W. — The Rural Teacher and His Work, p. 9. 

2 Carney, Mabel — Country Life and the Country School, p. 258. 

3’ Coffman, L. D.— Teacher Training Departments in Minnesota High 
Schools, p. 78. Published by the General Education Board, 61 Broadway, 
New York. 


284 RURAL EDUCATION 


Curricula Studies.—In order to insure a_ proper 
preparation both in the ability for local adjustment and 
in socialized aims and values, the prospective rural 
teacher must see the regular school studies in a new light. 
They have been looked upon too long as ends. They 
must now be seen as means. They have been abstract. 
They must now be related to life. They need te be 
psychologized; and it happens that this means in part, 
in this particular situation, that they need to be rural- 
ized. Educators, realizing that school studies and ex- 
periences were rather barren in their relation to life, sent 
out a command to change them. Impressed with the 
domination of the city, rural educational leaders blamed 
the barrenness of the curriculum upon the fact that it 
was made to suit urban conditions. This idea, at best 
only partially true, has been productive of many un- 
desirable results. Spurred on by this belief that the 
city was foisting its curriculum upon the country, rural 
leaders began to “ruralize’”’ the school subjects. This 
has led to the narrow, economic, occupational, and 
community purposes expressed in Part I. The truth of 
the matter is that the old curriculum prepares explicitly 
neither for urban nor for rural needs; it has obvious 
weaknesses for social needs at large. In many ways, it 
is arelic of the past. The real task for town and country 
alike has been and still is to relate the curriculum to the 
child’s experiences and needs and to the changed demands 
of life. 

The rural curriculum should have been reformed in 
keeping with large human values and the principles of 
growth, and not in relation to the needs and interests of 
a particular adult group. A part, but only a part, of 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 285 


this reformation would have been to relate it more 
closely to community interests and problems. The far 
greater part of the task is to make it serve actually as a 
means for socializing the child, for acquainting him 
with the larger world, for making its resources available 
to him, and for fitting him to grow abundantly and serve 
effectively in it. These rural subjects, then, need to 
be socialized in the largest meaning of the term rather 
than simply to be ruralized. They need to be profes- 
stonalized (and this includes all the ruralizing that is 
wise in elementary education) in order that the teacher 
may see them in relation to her task. Early reading 
will concern itself with local interests. Arithmetic will 
deal much, but not entirely, with local problems. Geog- 
raphy, history, sanitation, language will have a local 
setting. But the teacher’s fundamental task is to see 
these subjects as means of child growth and as means of 
leading him out from his local situation into interests 
that are vastly wider than those of rural life. 

The newer subjects in the rural school, as agriculture, 
nature study, manual training, and domestic art, require 
special attention in the preparation of the rural teacher, 
because they have not been so much a part of her own 
school experience. ‘They are less well organized as sub- 
jects also, and more difficult to handle and to introduce 
into our present school situation. Yet their substance 
is a vital and fundamental part of the child’s daily life. 
They have been neglected both as a medium through 
which to make real to the child the meaning and value 
of the tools of living and as a source of problems and 
experiences worth while in themselves. They have been 
shown in Chapter XI, however, to be particularly 


286 RURAL EDUCATION 


important as a means of approach to the enlarged ex- 
perience that the school should give to the child. To 
attain these better results such subjects must be studied 
in their larger setting. Agriculture is one of the world’s 
occupations. Domestic economy is a problem that 
touches every phase of social life. Manual training is a 
phase of industrial arts and as such should be merely a 
part of the study of the world of industries. For children 
limited courses for immediate efficiency in these fields 
lose nearly all the values that the subjects contain and 
care must be exercised to see that they are not voca- 
tionalized, commercialized, or used as a means either of 
ruralizing the teachers and in turn, the pupils, or merely 
of solving local problems and satisfying adult demands. 

An equally broad interpretation must be given to the 
subjects of sociology and economics. Rural sociology 
and rural economics present the facts of rural life condi- 
tions. These conditions need to be known. They are 
a factor in rural school progress. In this local form, 
however, they represent but particular expressions of 
larger social and economic laws. Any study of local 
conditions and needs should be merely an aspect of a 
much larger study making particular applications of 
fundamental principles and insuring an insight into the 
problems of society as a whole. Only in this way will 
the teacher sense the unity of present social groups and 
be prepared to attack the local problem intelligently 
and effectively. 

But beyond and basic to this, the teacher should know 
the contributions of history, science, literature, music, 
and art to the larger and more comprehensive life of 
man. In view of the limited interests among rural 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 287 


people and the dearth of rural resources it is especially 
important that the country teacher of rural birth and 
rearing have every opportunity to profit from the rich 
resources of these subjects. Their contribution to the 
growth of the child in interests, in new standards, in 
larger vision, and in a deeper, broader knowledge is vital. 
The rural elementary teacher above all other elementary 
teachers must master this heritage because of her de- 
pendence upon her own resources. Instead of limiting 
the curriculum for the preparation of rural teachers to 
the interests and conscious needs of the rural group, 
then, we must enlarge it and thus prepare teachers 
capable of meeting the deficiencies of rural life from the 
standpoint of child growth and social demands. The 
interests they do not have; the activities they know little 
about; the living conditions, problems, and interests of 
other groups; the progress of other peoples — these are 
the things to be provided through training. Since our 
purpose is a generous growth and an enlarged social 
consciousness for the child and the group, any attempt to 
pervert the training of rural teachers so as to limit the 
service they may render is undemocratic, unfair to the 
child, and unjust to society. 

Organization for the Preparation of Rural Teachers. — 
What type of organization can best accomplish the 
desired preparation of rural teachers? The answers here 
have varied, partly because of expediency and partly 
because of a difference in the educational theory. It 
has been found wise, because of the differences involved, 
to differentiate kindergarten, primary, intermediate, and 
grammar grades as specific phases of normal school work. 
The differences that exist between these special fields 


288 RURAL EDUCATION 


and rural school teachers are greater than the differences 
between any two of them. A distinct rural school 
curriculum or department of the normal school is there- 
fore needed. Some such differentiation in the organiza- 
tion of teacher-training for the rural situation is now 
quite common and its value is generally admitted. What 
should be the specific nature of this differentiation? 

1. In Special Schools. At the present time large 
numbers of rural teachers are prepared in local high 
schools, and the recent development of professional 
departments in these schools is noteworthy. In Wis- 
consin there are county training schools especially 
instituted to prepare rural teachers in a rural environ- 
ment. Cubberley advocates these in his proposed re- 
organization where he says: 

Under ...the county unit for educational organization and 
administration, as is outlined in Chapter XIII, the organization of 
such agricultural and normal-training high schools would become a 


marked feature of the school system of every agricultural county of 
any size in area and population.! 


Concerning the high school training classes he says 
that they ‘‘supply a temporary rather than a permanent 
need, and that the line of evolution of the future will 
involve both the development of combined county nor- 
mal-training and agricultural high schools.” ? 

Whatever may be the other reasons for thus seeking 
a rural environment and atmosphere in which to prepare 
teachers for rural schools, there appears to be a strong 
desire to keep them from getting too far from present 
rural life. To some rural leaders the whole task would 


1 Cubberley, E. P. — Rural Life and Education, p. 294. 
2 Ibid. — p. 294. 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 289 


seem solved if they could but indoctrinate the teacher 
sufficiently with the rural spirit. One writer states this 
attitude as follows: 

Our plan for better rural schools includes a demand for better- 
prepared teachers, educated in rural environments, in sympathy with 
country life, and with some hope of permanency in their calling... . 
What the open country needs most of all is a place in which to train 
our own people for the “leadership” which we must have. It is 
imperative that we have normal and agricultural schools which will 
receive the rural students of mature age directly from the rural school 
and train them for this rural school and community work and leader- 
ship 

But these rural teachers are already well informed 
concerning rural and village life. What they need 
further is opportunity to acquire a broader knowledge 
and culture as a perspective for interpreting the rural 
situation with which they are familiar. There may be 
some reason for subjecting students-in-training of urban 
birth to this rural atmosphere which is so earnestly 
sought for the rural teacher. But there is no justifica- 
tion for dooming country children to rural-born teachers 
who have been limited at every step of their preparation to 
no more than rural experience. Although this movement 
for the special training of rural teachers in a rural en- 
vironment finds some justification from the argument of 
expediency, therefore, it should not be used as a univer- 
sal practice. The establishment of permanent separate 
normal schools for rural teachers only would also be 
socially destructive and harmful to the rural group. 
This policy might serve to return a larger number of 
teachers to the rural schools by limiting their vision and 
opportunity, but it would result in a type of inbreeding 


1 Campbell, W. H. — N. H. A. Proceedings, 1917, pp. 601-2. 


290 RURAL EDUCATION 


that would widen the present professional chasm be- 
tween rural and urban teachers, and still further restrict 
the opportunities of rural children. 

2. In Regular Normal Schools. Where rural educa- 
tion has gained a foothold within existing normal 
schools, two types of organization are found. First, 
there is the organization which emphasizes differences 
and, in order to develop group loyalty and rural enthusi- 
asm, attempts a rather independent group life. Special 
courses in literature, manual training, science, art, music, 
school management, and methods are instituted. The 
rural field is kept in view at every turn and everything 
is given a local application. The group favoring this 
policy see but little in common between the preparation 
of rural teachers and the preparation of teachers for 
other schools. They emphasize superficial differences 
more than basic resemblances. 

On the other hand, there are those who realize that 
rural teaching has vastly more elements in common with 
other fields of teaching than it has elements of difference. 
Burnham would develop the work for rural teachers in 
normal schools as follows: 

The work of a department of rural education, and where special 
courses are given in other departments, is to grow the new work into 
the organic, central life of the normal school and not to develop a 
side-show. The saner the work of differentiation, the less con- 
spicuous and the more influential the rural group tends to become, 
both within and without the normal school.... For safeguarding 
institutional unity and the higher loyalty of school over department 
it will certainly be well to obliterate to a large degree differentiation 


in literary, social, and religious activities, and to make only plainly 
justifiable differences in classes.1 


1 Burnham, Ernest — Rural-Teacher Preparation in State Normal Schools. 
U. 8. Bureau of Education, Bulletin 1918, No. 27, p. 39. 


4 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 291 


Rural life is thought of by Burnham and other mem- 
bers of this group as merely one aspect of a complex 
whole, not as something unique and different. The 
rural teacher is made to feel that she is a part of the 
teaching profession. Her problems are problems com- 
mon to other teachers. She has the task of making the 
local application just as all teachers have. The unity 
of the teaching profession, the unity of the task of educa- 
tion, the similarity of child needs, the comm6n purposes 
in education whether for child or adult, are stressed by 
this second group. 

The conception of the individual and social “needs” 
of rural life, the work of the rural elementary school, and 
the task of the teacher presented in this study indicate 
that her preparation can be accomplished best in a 
standard normal school with a rural department not too 
sharply differentiated. Here she will meet and know 
people from different walks of life. Here she can 
associate professionally with those who are going into 
other fields of teaching. Here she will have opportunity 
to choose another field if rural teaching is found in 
compatible with her interests and activities, and to be- 
come familiar both with the vast resources of modern 
civilization and its many lines of growth and satisfac- 
tion. Here she can be prepared to give the best of pro- 
fessional service in terms of teaching, to create interests, 
to stimulate activity, and to develop in the rural child 
and adult a larger social knowledge and a dynamic and 
fruitful social membership. 

In addition to the foregoing it may be stated further 
that the service of the teacher to rural adults demands 
this broader training and experience to counteract exist- 


292 RURAL EDUCATION 


ing rural isolation and class consciousness. Rural and 
urban dwellers are already separated too much by their 
evident differences in manner and customs and the 
teacher must be one to bring about the spirit of co- 
operation and mutual respect which is so sorely needed 
between country and town. She must interpret the 
one to the other and thereby further social integration 
and progress. She must be the carrier of her standards, 
new ideals, and new interests. These, however, can be ~ 
secured only by contact during the period of the teacher’s 
preparation. It will certainly not help the situation 
greatly to take students of rural birth, give them a rural 
training in a rural setting, and then send them back to 
lead farmers along the paths of their present restricted 
interests. Prepare such prospective teachers rather, 
by an experience with many groups, with varied interests, 
and by a large acquaintance with modern social problems 
and tendencies, then let them return and help rural folk 
into a larger social membership where they will develop 
more vital interests, newer standards and _ broader 
appreciations. The teacher’s leadership will then be 
profitable to the rural group and to society as a whole. 
The professional status of the rural teacher will also 
be improved by this more general association. Rural] 
education itself will benefit. There is already a strong 
tendency toward class-consciousness among the rural- 
teacher group. They reflect the attitude of the farmer 
among urban people. All this is most unfortunate. We 
must see all teaching work as one. Rural children are 
normal children. The large aims of rural education are 
identical with the large aims of urban education. The 
unity of educational effort must be built up in the minds 


PREPARATION OF THE RURAL TEACHER 293 


of all teachers by a common attack upon the problems 
of education. Normal schools cannot afford to further 
the class differentiation between town and country by 
allowing it to appear in the teaching ranks. 

Above all, such an opportunity and training as is 
furnished by first class normal schools and teachers’ 
colleges is the right and need of the rural child. With 
a sympathy, understanding, and loyalty resulting from 
rural birth or experience, with a professional preparation 
second to none, and with that superior command of the 
social heritage which the rural field demands, this new 
type of rural teacher will be prepared to provide most 
fully for the growth of the rural child and to realize for 
him a broader and more vital social membership and a 
more abundant social service. 





BIBLIOGRAPHY 


ALLEMAN, L. J.—Important Features in Rural School Improvement. 
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Arp, J. B.—Rural Education and the Consolidated School. World 

Book Company, Yonkers, New York, 1918. 

Bacirey, W. C.—Educational Values. The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1911. 

Baitey, L. H.—The Training of Farmers. The Century Company, 
New York, 1909. 

Batpwin, J. M.—The Individual and Society. Gorham Press, Bos- 
ton, 1911. 

Benson, O. H.—Organization and Instruction of Boys Corn Club 
Work. Bureau of Plant Industry, Publication No. 803. 

Betts, G. H.—New Ideals in Rural Schools. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, Boston, 1913. 

Berts, G. H. and Hatu, O. E.—Better Rural Schools. Bobbs-Mer- 
rill Company, Indianapolis, 1914. 

Bonssr, F. G.—The Elementary School Curriculum. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1920. 

Burcsss, E. W.—The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. 
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1916. 

BuRNHAM, Ernest—Rural Teacher Preparation in State Normal 
Schools. United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, 
No. 27. 

BUTTERFIELD, Kenyon L.—Presidential Address. National County 
Life Conference. Survey, February 9, 1919. 

BUTTERFIELD, Kenyon L.—Chapters in Rural Progress. University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago. 

BUTTERFIELD, KENYON L.—The Country Church and the Rural Prob- 
lem. University of Chicago Press, 1911. 

BUTTERFIELD, Kenyon L.—The Farmer and the New Day. The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1919. 

CampBELL, W. H.—The Rural People and Rural Education. National 
Education Association Proceedings, 1917. 

Carney, Maspet—Country Life and the Country School. Row, Peter- 
son and Company, Chicago, 1912. 

Carver, T. N.—Principles of Rural Economics. Ginn and Company, 
Boston, 1911. 

295 


296 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


CaTTELL, JAMES McKren—A Statistical Study of American Men of 
Science. Science, New Series, Vol. 24. 

CHAMBERLAIN, A. H.—Vital Issues in the Study of Rural Life Condi- 
tions. National Education Association Proceedings, 1914. 

CLAGHORN, Kate Houurpay—Jwenile Delinquency in Rural New 
York. United States Department of Labor. Children’s Bureau, 
Publication No. 32. 

Cropper, Epwarp N.—Rural Child Welfare. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1922. 

CiLopreR, Epwarp N.—Farm Work and Schools in Kentucky. Pam- 
phlet 274, National Child Labor Committee, 105 East 22d 
Street, New York City. ; 

Crow, F. R.—Principles of Sociology with Educational Applications. 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 

Cooter, C. H.—Human Nature and the Social Order. Charles Scrib- 
ner’s Sons, New York, 1902. 

CUBBERLEY, E. P.—State and County Educational Reorganization. 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1914. 

CuBBERLEY, E. P.—The Improvement of Rural Schools. Houghton 
Mifflin Company, Boston, 1912. 

CuBBERLEY, E. P.—Rural Life and Education. Houghton Mifflin 
Company, Boston, 1914. 

Drewry, Evetyn—New Schools for Old. E. P. Dutton and Com- 
pany, New York, 1919. 

Dewey, JoHn—Democracy and Education. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1916. 

Dewey, Joun and Turts, J. H.—Hthics. Henry Holt and Com- 
pany, New York, 1908. 

EGcGLeston, J. D. and Brubre, R. W.—The Work of the Rural 
School. Harper Brothers, New York, 1918. 

Exiwoop, C. A.—Sociology in its Psychological Aspects. D. Apple- 
ton and Company, New York, 1912. 

Focut, Harotp W.—The Efficiency and Preparation of Rural School 
Teachers. United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, 
No. 49. 

Focut, Harotp W.—The American Rural School. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1910. 

Focut, Harotp W.—The Rural Teacher and His Work. The Mac- 
millan Company, 1920. 

Ga.pin, C. J.—Rural Life. The Century Company, New York, 1918. 

GILLETTE, Joun M.—Constructive Rural Sociology. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1915. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 297 


Grove, Ernest R.—Rural Problems of To-day. Association Press, 
124 East 28th Street, New York City, 1918. 

Hoimes, R. H.—Influence of the Industrial and Social Evolution upon 
the Agricultural Industry of America. American Journal of So- 
ciology, May, 1919. 

Hosic, J. F.—The Elementary Course in English. University of 
Chicago Press, 1919. 

Kern, O. J.—Among Country Schools. Ginn and Company, Boston, 
1906. 

Kinpatrick, W. H.—The Project Method. Teachers College, Colum- 
bia University, New York, 1918. 

Kine, Irnvine—The Social Aspects of Education. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1912. 

Krrxpatrick, M. G.—The Rural School from Within. J. B. Lippin- 
cott Company, Philadelphia, 1917. 

MacCuintock, P. L.—Literature in the Elementary School. Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, 1920. 

MacDovuaat, Jonn—Rural Life in Canada. The Westminster Com- 
pany, Toronto, Ontario, 1913. 

MacGarr, K. L.—A Study of the Rural Community. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1921. 

McKeever, W. A.—Farm Boys and Girls. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1912. 

Manual of Educational Legislation. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 
1914, No. 4. 

Monauan, A. C.—Educational Advantages of Consolidation. United 
States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, No. 30. 

Monanan, A. C.—Status of Rural Education in United States. Bu- 
reau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 8. 

Monanan, A. C.—T raining Course for Rural Teachers. United States 
Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 2. 

MoutcHier and Craic—Course of Study for the Preparation of Rural 
School Teachers. United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 
1912, No. 1. 

PAULSEN, FrrepRiIckK—A System of Ethics. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
New York, 1899. 

PuiunKert, Horace—The Rural Life Problem of the United States. 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1910. 

Report No. 103—The Social and Labor Needs of Farm Women. De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Report No. 105—Hducational Needs of Farm Women. Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 


298 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Report No. 105—Economic Needs of Farm Women. Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Report of the Commission on Country Life. The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1910. 

SuzzaLo, HENRY—The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. Houghton 
Mifflin Company, Boston, 1912. 

Tate, W. K.—The New Country School. Published by the Youth’s 
Companion, Boston, Mass., 1913. 

The Grange Monthly. November, 1919. Published at Springfield, 
Mass. 

THORNDIKE, EK. L.—Education for Initiative and Originality. Teach- 
ers College Record, Vol. XVII, November, 1916. 

THORNDIKE, E. L.—Kducational Psychology. Bureau of Publications, — 
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1914. 

Topp, A. J— Theories of Social Progress. The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1918. 

Voet, Paut L.—Introduction to Rural Sociology. D. Appleton and 
Company, New York, 1917. 

Warp, Lester F.—Applied Sociology. Ginn and Company, Boston, 
1906. 

WakREN, G. F.—Farm Management. The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1913. 

WILson, WARREN H.—The Evolution of the Country Commumty. The 
Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1912. 

WoopwortH, R. S.—Dynamic Pyschology. Columbia University 
Press, New York, 1918. 

Woorter, T. J.—Teaching in Rural Schools. Houghton Mifflin 
Company, Boston, 1917. 


INDEX 


Activity, as an end, 73-5; as a’ | Child, needs of, 41; and function 


basic principle in school work, 
215, 219-20; opportunities for 
in rural school, 220-2 

Adjustment, of individual, 79, 95; 
not: unnatural, 96; difficult, 98; 
as school responsibility, 197 

Agriculture, social value of, 146; 
social status of, 147, 149, 150; 
possibilities in, 157 ff., 162 ff., 
164 ff., 166 ff.; lacks in, 166-74; 
in rural elementary school, 251 ff.; 
285-6. 

Aim. See Education, purpose of 

Arithmetic, evaluation of content 
in school, 237-42; and socializ- 
ing child, 289-42 

Arp, J. B., 38, 41 

Art, need for in rural life, 254-5; 
opportunities for, 255-6 


Bagley, W. C., 27, 61 

Bailey, L. H., 9, 23, 36, 43, 168 

Benson, O. H., 122 

Betts, G. H., 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 

- 26, 35, 36, 40 

Bobbitt, F., 243 

Bonser, F. G., 229 

Bourland, A. P., 10, 19 

Bruére,; R: W.., 5, 11, 31, 33 

Burgess, E. W., 78 

Burnham, Ernest, 290 

Butterfield, K. L., 23, 36, 38, 121, 
126, 129, 144, 146, 150, 154, 163, 
172, 174 


Carney, Mabel, 22, 30, 42, 283 

Carver, T,N.;' 143; 147, 150, 153, 
160, 162, 172 

Cattell, J. McKeen, 151 

Chamberlain, A. H., 280 


of school, 44; and government 
service, 121; status of in rural 
life, 133; opportunities for in 
rural life, 177, 202 ff.; essential 
conditions of growth, 181; limi- 
tation of rural child, 181-93; 
importance in education, 205, 
210, 214, 230-1 

Citizenship, as» an objective of 
education, 37, 211 

Civics, value of to rural child, 
250-1 

Claghorn,' Kate H., 187 

Clapper, E.'N., 134 

Clubs, agricultural, 17-18, 34, 122; 
opportunities for, 221 

Coffman, L. D., 46, 283 

Community, local, 38, 48; organiza- 
tion of, 50-5; importance of in 
rural life, 172; scope of, 264-5; 
nature of local, 265-8 

Community, School and, 38, 48; 
evaluation of proposals, 261-3; 
desirable relationship, 263-4 

Conservatism, 193 

Consolidation, 50 

Cook, Katherine M., 13 

Cooley, C. H., 97 

Coéperation and social progress, 90 

Creative thinking, 105 

Creelman, G. C., 34 

Cubberley, E. P., 12, 30, 34, 41, 260 

Culter, H. M., 22 

Curriculum, 7-8, 16-17, 33; in zela- 
tion to environment, 201; rural- 
wed, 212; selection of, 216; 
organization of, 218-20, 229, 
245-8; construction of, 222-6; 
for preparation of rural teachers, 
284-9 


299 


300 


Democracy among rural folk, 129, 
161-2; in home, 131-5 

Dewey, Evelyn, 6, 19, 39, 49 

Dewey, John, 60, 61, 66, 70, 74, 78, 
80, 84, 87, 97, 100, 101, 102, 103, 
105, 158, 178, 179, 198, 200, 217 

Driver, Lee L., 5 

Drudgery, common responsibility 
for, 104 


Education, purpose of elementary, 
4, 5, 8, 18, 21, 24, 29, 30, 38, 44, 
48, 190, 200, 205; in general, 
73, 197-200; status of in rural 
life, 137; purpose of evaluated, 
208-14; nature of, 198-99, 203; 
as growth, 203-5; and environ- 
ment, 200; problems of rural 
elementary, 206, 208-214 

Eggleston, J. D. See Bruére 

Ellwood, C. A., 96 

Environment, influence on  indi- 
vidual, 79-81; demands upon, 
76 ff.; limitation of rural, 180; 
influence upon rural education, 
200 ff. 

Equipment, importance of, 227 

Evans, L. B., 8 


Farmer, authority in family life, 
131; as family banker, 132; 
social status, 147, 149, 150; 
education of, 154; in relation to 
his work, 167; scope of interests, 
169 ff. 

Foght, H. W., 7, 16, 17, 20, 34, 37, 
40, 48, 50, 51, 275, 283 

Freedom, of individual to select 
ends, 81, 163; for self-direction, 
82, 157; to vary, 105; evaluation 
of in rural life, 176ff., 191; 
characteristics of desirable free- 
dom, 178-80 


Galpin, C. H., 53, 54, 116, 118, 121, 
131, 133, 143, 184, 185, 264 


INDEX 


Geography, value of to rural child, 
249-50 

Giddings, F. H., 76, 77, 84 

Gillette, J. M., 9, 121, 125, 131, 
140, 141, 150, 154, 159, 180, 190 

Government, national, in relation 
to farmers, 118; to women, 
118-21; to children, 121-3 

Growth, conditions of, 76-85; must 
continue, 83, 107; possibilities in 
agriculture, 159 ff., 162 ff., 164; 
for children, 181-94 


Hall, O. E. See Betts 

Hays, W. M., 11, 12 

Health, rural, 117; status of, 135, 
243-4; progress in, 137 

History, value of to rural child, 
248-9 

Holmes, R. H., 25, 46, 52 

Home making, in rural elementary 
schools, 251 

Hosie, J. F., 235 

Hurd, W. D., 35 

Hyatt, E., 49, 275 

Hygiene, nature of in rural schools, 
242-5 


Independence, of rural folk in plan- 
ning, 158; social, 159 

Individual, nature of, 60 ff., 96-7, 
175; conditions of growth, 76 ff., 
90; freedom to select ends, 81; 
as a product of society, 78-81, 
98, 179-80, 192; status of in 
society, 88, 90, 93; demands of 
society upon, 95-101; conditions 
of cortributions to society, 101-8; 
relation to social demands, 109- 
111; as an end, 93, 105, 123 

Integration, social, 173; through 
social contacts, 183, 185; through 
school work, 218 

Interests, conditioned by, 68-73, 
81; how determined, 90; varied, 
102-3, 162-3, 186; of farmer, 
169-72 


INDEX 


Isolation, and group progress, 78, 
155; and health, 137, 244; 
and child development, 182; and 
importance of reading, 232 


Joyner, J. Y., 40, 50, 278 


Kern, O. J., 12, 17, 36 
Kilpatrick, W. H., 72, 220 
Kirkpatrick, M. G., 52 


Lacks, in farm life, 166-74 

Lamon, H. A., 122 

Lathrop, Julia, 187 

Law, C., 37 

Leadership, rural folk fail in, 149, 
150; developing, 153, 154; needs 
of, 193 

Learning, conditions of, 217 

Leisure, provision for in agriculture, 
166; and reading in rural life, 232 


MacClintock, P. L., 235 

MacDougal, John, 7 / 

McKeever, W. A., 17, 28, 275, 279 

Mental defect in rural life, 138 

Method, nature of educational, 
215 ff.; arguments for, 218; op- 
portunity for project in rural 
schools, 220, 245-8 

Monahan, A. P., 138, 279 

Monroe, W. A., 239, 241 

Morality, rural, 139 

Music, need for in rural life, 254—5 


Needs, rural, 14-16; of local com- 
munity, 39; of child, 41, 205; 
child vs. adult, 212; rural social 
needs, 117 


Objectives, need of specific, 219-20; 
in hygiene, 243; in preparation 
of rural teachers, 278-84 

Occupation, conditions essential for 
growth, 157 

Organization, school, 6, 50, 257 ff.; 
of state system, 12, 260; of com- 


301 


munity, 50, 52; independent of 
city, 143; uniting town and 
country, 148, 258; complexity of 
social, 198; of school work, 
215 ff., 220-2, 245-8, 254; of 
teacher training, 287-93 


Page, Walter H., 5 

Paulsen, Friedrick, 61, 66 

Plunkett, H. L., 130 

Progress, conditions suitable for in- 
dividual, 76; as a characteristic 
of society, 88-9; and cooperation, 
90; conditions of social progress, 
90-2, 105-9; school and, 197 

Purposes, significance of individual, 
60 ff., 66-7; nature of, 63-4; 
conditioned by, 68-75; attain- 
ment of, 84; relation to school 
work, 216-20 


Rapp, E. M., 7 

Reading, importance of in rural life, 
231-3; selection of in rural life, 
233-5; and school work, 235-7 

Recreation, 182 

Resources, using rural, 21, 202 ff., 
212, 285-6; limitations of, 24-7 

Retention of youth in country, 5 ff.; 
adults, 29 ff., 208 

Rural folk, characteristics of, 125-7, 
139-41, 158-62, 167-74, 181-4; 
standards and practices, 127-42, 
186; social relations, 128, 130; 
industriousness, 140; economy, 
140; attitude toward urban life, 
125; as contributions to social 
welfare, 146 ff.; relative superi- 
ority of, 148-152 

Rural leaders and rural: problems, 
123-4; child labor, 133 

Rural life, organization of com- 
munity, 50, 52; independent of 
city, 148, 153; uniting town and 
country, 143; educational ad- 
vantages of, 148-52, 220-1; free- 


302 


dom of, 176; limitations of for 
child growth, 181-93 - 
Ruralist, 143, 153 - 


School, function of, 4, 5, 8, 18, 21, 
24, 29, 30, 37, 38, 44, 48; ad- 
vantages of rural, 220 

School and PM SE See Com- 
munity 


School, STi atan of. See eee 


ization 

Self-discovery, 81, 101, 102, 186; 
self-direction, 82, 92, 157; sclf- 
expression, 81, 163 

Sledd, Andrew, 20, 40 

Slosson, E. E., 253 

Smith, Payson, 24 

Social adjustment. 
ment 

Social contacts and 
growth, 76, 78, 179-80; 
basis for rural and national! 
welfare, 145, 155; numerous, 181; 
varied, 183 

Social life, limited in country, 182-5, 
187 


Social membership, opportunities 
for in agriculture, 165; in rural 
community life, 202; through 


arithmetic, 239-42; art, 256 

Social relations, urban and rural, 
115-118, 125-7, 155; among 
rural folk, 128, 161-2, 172; de- 
veloping, 159; within the family, 
130-5, 159-61; ignored by 
farmer, 168 

Society, and individual (see Indi- 
vidual); purpose of, 88; char- 
acteristics of, 88 

Stone, Julia M. See Culter 

Subject matter, nature of, 216 

Subjects, school, and child growth, 
218-20; as a guide to teacher, 
229-31; grouping of in primary 
grades, 245-8; and preparation 
of rural teachers, 284-7 


| Suzzalo, H. 


‘Tate, 1 W. K 


See Adyjust- 


individual 
as a, 


r hae = ie 


INDEX 


a had culty mm 
Supervisors, ' and nena hit con- 
struction, 226-7 ¢ 
, 240 


20 

Teachers, sélection. of, 16-17: task 
of, 42, 271-4, 275-7, and curricu- 
lum construction, 226; nature of 
preparation, 271-4: proposed 
standards for preparation -and 
selection of, 274-80, 281-4; eval- 
uation of objectives, 280-1 

Textbooks, requirements of, :227 

Thorndike, E. L., 62, 63, 64, 67, 72, 
78, 81, 96, 155, 180 


| Todd, A. J., 77, 98, 106, 145 


Urban attitude toward rural life, 
' 116-18, 146-7; need for improv- 
ing, 153 


Values, nature of individual, 63-73, 
92, 96-7; nature of social, 88-91; 
source of social value, 92 

Variation, 105-6, freedom to vary, 
191 

Vocation, Orehiraiion for in ele- 
mentary school, 8, 209, 268, 270; 
significance of choice, 188; op- 
portunity for choice, 189; adult 
efficiency in, 30ff. See Agricul- 
ture 

Vogt, Paul L., 42, 129, 135, 136, 
137, 138, 139, 158 


Ward, L. F., 151 

Warren, G. T., 130, 158, 161, 162, 
163 

Waters, J. H., 24, 31 

Wilkinson, W. A., 18 

Wilson, R. H., 10, 14 

Wilson, Warren H., 7, 182, 139, 259 

Women, government service to, 
118-21; status of in rural life, 130, 
160-1, 169 

Woodworth, R. S., 64, 67, 70, 82, 
97 


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